Hirst Dealer: No ‘Mountain’ of Unsold Works
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Damien Hirst’s London dealer, White Cube, has denied it has a “mountain” of unsold works before a Sotheby’s sale that previews today in the Hamptons and New Delhi.
White Cube, which has galleries in east London, said in an e-mailed statement that its stock level for Mr. Hirst’s work was normal. The Art Newspaper said on Saturday that the dealer held more than 200 paintings and sculptures by Mr. Hirst, valued at more than 100 million pounds, or $184.5 million, citing White Cube documents.
“The appetite for Damien’s art,” the owner of White Cube, Jay Jopling, said in the statement, “is such that we never have enough, and I’m always keen to have as much work on consignment as possible.” The market for Mr. Hirst’s work is strong and suggestions to the contrary were based on “redundant documents.”
The Art Newspaper said 34 butterfly paintings, 35 spin paintings, and six medicine cabinets, ranging in date from 2002 to 2008, are still available, priced to about $4.6 million. The $8.2 million and $7.3 million formaldehyde sculptures “Love’s Paradox” — featuring a cow split in half — and “Black Sheep” were among works left unsold from Mr. Hirst’s 2007 summer exhibition, “Beyond Belief,” the newspaper said.
Sotheby’s said its “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever” sale in London on September 15 and 16 may raise $118.8 million.