LONDON (AFP) — British artist Damien Hirst set a new record Tuesday after a two-day sale of his work fetched some 111 million pounds (198 million dollars, 140 million euros), auction house Sotheby's said.
"We are very, very happy," a spokesman told AFP after the end of the auction in London, which initially was aimed at topping 65 million pounds for the artist famous for embalming animals in formaldehyde.
The auction, entitled "Beautiful Inside My Head Forever," broke new ground as the first time an artist has sold a body of work directly, bypassing art galleries who charge commission of up to 50 percent of the sale price.
It also smashed the record for a sale dedicated to one artist, Sotheby's said, beating the 20 million dollars for 88 works by Pablo Picasso sold in 1993.
And it proved there is no shortage of art buyers even in the current economic gloom, which hit new depths after the collapse of US investment giant Lehman Brothers plunged the financial markets into turmoil.
At the end of the sale Hirst, 43, said: "I'm totally exhausted and amazed that my art is selling while banks are falling.
"I guess it means that people would rather put their money into butterflies than banks -- seems like a better world today to me."
The sale included several works featuring butterflies.
The first day of the sale on Monday fetched 70.5 million pounds, including "The Golden Calf," which sees Hirst put a real calf in a tank of formaldehyde, adding 18-carat gold hooves and horns and a gold disc on its head.
It had been estimated at between eight and 12 million pounds, but sold for 10.3 million, establishing a new record for a Hirst work at auction.
Highlights on Tuesday included The Dream -- a foal in formaldehyde inside a steel and glass tank -- which sold for 2.3 million pounds, and a butterfly piece called Reincarnated, for 1.6 million, more than twice its 700,000 pound top estimate.
"It's another landmark, an astounding day for the art market in a year that has seen many long-standing records demolished, despite the gloomy world economy," Hirst said.
Hirst is already one of the best-selling modern artists in the world, but Sotheby's said the unconventional auction and 11-day pre-sale exhibition -- which attracted 21,000 visitors -- had broadened his market even further.
"The sale has broken major new ground and set several new and important benchmarks... Beautiful Inside My Head Forever is undoubtedly the sale of the century -- to date," said Sotheby's managing director Patric Van Maris.
Last year the artist, who works with a team of about 200, sold a platinum skull encrusted with 8,601 diamonds for 50 million pounds in a private sale. It is thought to be the world's most expensive piece of contemporary art.
Not everyone was happy with this week's auction. The Stuckist art movement, which promotes figurative art as opposed to conceptual art, said buyers were mad to buy Hirst's work at such prices.
"It's quite obvious that the art world has gone stark raving bonkers," said Stuckist co-founder Charles Thomson.
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