2008

Artprice.com has just published Art market trends 2008. Last year, the top-10 artists in terms of turnover at auction were: Picasso, Bacon, Warhol, Hirst, Monet, Giacometti, Richter, Degas, Fontana, and Klein. The list shows how post-war art has become the most important section of the market. (Koons, Basquiat, Freud, Prince, and Rothko can all be found between places 11 and 20.)

Voor de liefde Gods

Damien Hirst's famous "skull" is now on view in Amsterdam. Click here for more information.

Printing money

In today's edition of The Guardian, British artists talk about art and money.

"Any artist who doesn't secretly admire what Damien's been able to achieve is not being entirely honest. But that level of commodification is quite specific to Damien." About the individual Hirst works that went on the block, Julien is more circumspect. "Warhol's use of repetition had real intellectual meaning. Nowadays, I wonder if seriality is not just a way of printing money."

The Power 100

ArtReview has published its 2008 Power 100 list.

Now in its seventh year, the Power 100 assesses the titans of the artworld at a time when contemporary art's appeal has never been greater – and the stakes have never been higher. The ArtReview Power 100 looks at the artworld not according to what it shows, but who it is. The list is a highly visible barometer in an otherwise opaque industry, letting you know who's deciding what you see, and telling you a little about why.

On number 1 this year: Damien Hirst. What a surprise.

Damn, Damien (2)

The Guardian reports on the Hirst sale: "Hirst is unlikely to feel disappointed - he has made more money in two days than all the artists in the National Gallery earned in a lifetime."

Damn, Damien

Despite a financial market crisis, the Damien Hirst auction at Sotheby's London did surprisingly well. (Last week, The Economist published this article on Hirst and the sale.)

Beautiful inside his wallet

On September 15 and 16, Sotheby's organizes a special auction consigned by Damien Hirst. The sale carries the title "Beautiful Inside My Head Forever", features 223 works by Hirst (butterflies! dot-paintings! formaldehyde!) and is expected to net the artist more than 120 million USD.

The recipe for a record price

Auction house hype, media frenzy, and billionaire buyers.

Nobody understands better than an auction house that price appreciation of this magnitude is seldom intrinsic to the work.

From the press (2)

The Economist - What crisis? (click here)
IHT - The dangerous game of pushing up prices higher and higher (click here)
Art News Blog - Hirst buys Bacon (click here)

Investment, not art

An update on yesterday's story. Apparently, Damien Hirst is part of the investment group that bought his diamond skull for about 100 million USD.

The sale keeps Hirst in the news, reinforces the demand for his work and makes everyone who spent money at White Cube feel good about their investment. This is all about investment, not about art collecting.

Diamonds are forever?

Reportedly, Damien Hirst has recently sold his "diamond skull" - last summer on display in London - for about 100 million USD. To an investment company. Click here to read more.