End of Days Watch: Damien Hirst Admits His Art is Overpriced

By JOHN CAPONE

Updated 10:27 AM EST, Tue, Nov 18, 2008

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Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

So, Damien Hirst has told The Independent (UK) that his art is overpriced. But wait one second, wasn't that always the whole point?

Thanks to art buyers like, well, Damien Hirst, the works of Damien Hirst have ballooned to extraordinary levels making Damien Hirst the most highly paid living artist, and Damien Hirst the collector of works by Damien Hirst, wasn't doing too badly either.

The cocky Brit also admits to few chinks in the old stiff upper lip, though. Going it alone this September and selling his artwork through Sotheby's made quite a splash. Coming the week of Lehman collapse and tumbling credit crisis dominos did not bode well for the bold move.

"I woke up that morning and I saw the papers had called it Black Monday," he said. "I was shitting myself. I thought maybe they wouldn't sell anything. People were looking at me, and I thought I was going to be slaughtered. I didn't know what was going to happen with banks collapsing."

Hirst, of course, made out just fine. Selling a unicorn in a tank of formaldehyde called "The Dream" for more than $7 million, and netting better than $200 million over the course of the two-day auction in London. You know times are tough when someone with that kind of chuff comes back down to earth.