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$99,000,000 Bedazzled Skull Headbutts the Art World

MONDAY JUNE 4 2007 4:00 PM

Submitted by Aaron_Lariviere. Edited By erin_broadley.

TAGS: Damien Hirst, art, skull, diamonds

Taking the idea of "bling" to its furthest possible conclusion, artist Damien Hirst has created a piece he calls �For the Love of God�: a diamond-encrusted platinum skull. The selling price: �50,000,000, or somewhere between $98 and $99 million, making it not only a monument to excess, but one of the most expensive pieces of art ever made.

The gleaming skull is the newest creation by Hirst in a long line of controversial pieces of art � including The Physical Possibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, which consists of a flesh-and-blood shark sealed in a tank of formaldehyde.

In an interview with The Guardian, Hirst discusses his motivation:

I just want to celebrate life by saying to hell with death. What better way of saying that than by taking the ultimate symbol of death and covering it in the ultimate symbol of luxury, desire and decadence?

The skull is modeled after an 18th century European man�s actual skull from which a mold was created in platinum, which was then encrusted with 8,601 diamonds. But the teeth are real. Says Hirst:

The only part of the original skull that will remain will be the teeth. You need that grotesque element for it to work as a piece of art. God is in the details and all that.

As with Hirst's previous creations, there has been some discussion over whether or not this piece should be considered a serious work of art or more of a poke in the eye to the "establishment" of the art world. Pictured here alongside its creator, I�ll leave you to decide.

72 Comments

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SockPuppet

I'm lost

July 2006

JUN 04, 2007 04:07 PM

It looks a lot like a poke in the eye to the art establishment. Deliberately setting a silly sale price is the hint, AFAIAC.

luxmeaveritas

Albuquerque, NM

December 2004

JUN 04, 2007 04:30 PM

OMG! That's genius!!

... Wait. No it's not. Not even by post-post-modern art standards, which are apparently damn low. That's pretty... lame really.

I'd like to know where he got the money to get his paws on all those diamonds.

NotoriousCAT

Atlanta, GA

January 2004

JUN 04, 2007 04:31 PM

fuck what the art world thinks, i think it is beautiful!
(that pic does not do it justice, by the way, the one in my journal is better.)

dholokov

Toronto, ON

April 2003

JUN 04, 2007 04:32 PM

The skull has already been replaced by a near undetectable forgery. The original is the centrepeice of my underground lair of villany.

RileyStClair

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

JUN 04, 2007 04:32 PM

i'm not going to lie, i would buy a diamond-encrusted human skull if i could (only if it was a real skull, though). i'm generally not that into diamond-encrusted things, but this would have to be an exception.

what i have to wonder is how he was able to afford that many diamonds.

whiterabbit819

Fairfield, CA

September 2006

JUN 04, 2007 04:42 PM

That is awsome!! I want it.

As for it being a poke in the eye of the art world... Like that plain white cavis hanging in the MOMA wasn't?

<--- incrust me with Diamonds

LizFitts

Shandaken, NY

May 2003

JUN 04, 2007 04:50 PM

what i have to wonder is how he was able to afford that many diamonds.

From The Guardian article:
"Hirst, who is in London for meetings with his latest collaborators, Bond Street jewellers Bentley & Skinner, added: 'The biggest expense will be the 50-carat beauty that will sit on the forehead. That one alone will cost in the region of �3m to �5m. It is certainly the biggest single undertaking by a jeweller since the Crown jewels'.

Hirst, 40, who was recently ranked as the most powerful individual in the contemporary art world by Art Review magazine, is reputedly worth in the region of �100m."

Thanks to Charles Saatchi!

Erica

SUICIDEGIRL

USA

JUN 04, 2007 04:53 PM

I'm really not into Damien Hirst's work. He is among the highest paid living artists in the world and I have yet to be impressed with anything he has done. It's all shock me shock me shock me.

HAL9000

Milwaukee, WI

November 2003

JUN 04, 2007 04:59 PM

It looks less like art and more like some ornamental nick nack you could get at Hottopic or Urban Outfitters. There is way better art out there for much less $$$. I would much rather have the shark.

FearTheReaper

NEWSWIRE

I'm lost

JUN 04, 2007 05:10 PM

That is one of the dumbest pieces of "art" I have ever seen. Talk about lowest common denominator. Jesus.

DucksAreCrazy

Lexington, KY

December 2006

JUN 04, 2007 05:13 PM

I can't think of a better way to display one's ego.
Way to go, dude.

starbuck42

I'm lost

February 2007

JUN 04, 2007 05:22 PM

NotoriousCAT said:
(that pic does not do it justice, by the way, the one in my journal is better.)

Wow. You weren't lying.

joker_

Windsor, CA

October 2005

JUN 04, 2007 05:23 PM

The highest paid con artist in the world?

pitydafoo

Compton, CA

December 2006

JUN 04, 2007 05:23 PM

Damien Hirst is a chump, plain and simple. But the even bigger chumps are the inbred morons who buy his art. Though, if I could get as rich as him by selling what he passes as art, I would and I would care less what anyone writes about me on SG...Or anywhere else... But he's still a douchebag.