A week in which UK artist Damien Hirst broke his own records and sold a “Golden Calf” for more than £10m, while one of the world’s largest banks was collapsing, is an apt time to reflect on our world’s curious economic system. So writes author David Bodanis in Friday’s FT.
Hirst defied every law of artistic – and financial – gravity this week to become the first contemporary artist to take new works directly to auction, bypassing dealers and galleries to sell about £111.5m ($200m) worth of art, including the star lot: “Golden Calf“, a 600kg bullock in formaldehyde with hooves and horns cast in solid 18-carat gold, which sold for £10.3m, a record for the artist at auction.
The irony of the work, a Biblical symbol of pagan idolatory, money worship and materialistic ambition, has not been lost on commentators.
But love him or, more than likely, hate him (he is indeed the object of much derision) we also think it’s time to look seriously at what Hirst can teach financial markets. The man is certainly laughing all the way to a bank (if he can find one still standing) this week.
As Felix Salmon remarked on portfolio.com after the auction: “He’s like Stephen Schwarzman: he managed to time his biggest sale for right at the top of the market. Good for him.”
A cynical Tokyo hedgie adds:
Where have we heard this before? Low-grade rubbish being packaged by unscrupulous intermediaries as super high quality and sold to suckers at ridiculously inflated prices…. yup, that’s the art world…
And meanwhile, FT Alphaville reader “Tears for Tier 1″ noted after the auction:
New AIG shares should be put into cert form and made into a paper mache cow. The new shares could then be sold at a Damien Hirst auction at such a great price, the entire world financial system is rescued. (A totally straight Hirst auction, where absolutely no manipulation of bids, prices achieved and “buyers” on the phone occurs)
Regardless, a nonchalant Hirst has shown the way. And it’s doubtful he even cares about the predictions of Salmon and others that “this is the highest that Hirst will ever float”.
As Salmon wrote in a previous post:
Hirst has done a magnificent job of riding the Veblen curve: demand for his works has only increased as their prices have soared. But that curve can’t keep on rising forever, and Sept 15 — the Hirst evening auction — will mark its high point. Hirst can try to keep raising his prices after that, and the diamond-studded skull is now said to be on the market for well over $250m, but he won’t find buyers any more, only sellers.
Which is fine by Hirst: dynastically wealthy already, he’s scaling back production dramatically; any downturn in his prices has no ability to hurt him. Indeed, the whole superheated market in his works is his greatest artwork of all, and the golden calf at Sotheby’s is Hirst’s way of making collectors pay through the nose for an artwork which openly mocks their ambitions and idolatry.
Oh, one last thing that overstressed bankers could learn from Hirst: step away and chill out in make-or-break situations: on Monday night when Sotheby’s was flogging his products, he was understood to be playing pool in north London because he found the occasion “too stressful”.
But everyone makes mistakes, as we’ve learned yet again this week, and after the sale, Hirst said: “I think the market is bigger than anyone knows. I love art and this proves I’m not alone, and the future looks great for everyone.”
On that point, he is probably very, very wrong.
Related links:
Hirst art lures Russians; crisis saps US demand, dealers say