Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Damien Hirst's ``Beautiful Inside My Head Forever'' sale ended today, having raised 111.5 million pounds ($199 million), Sotheby's said.

The figure beat the presale estimate of between 65 million pounds and 98 million pounds. Sotheby's said 218 of the 223 lots in the two-day event were sold.

Dealers said this was the first time a major contemporary artist had sold a large body of work directly through an auction house rather than via a commercial gallery.

Hirst, the U.K.'s wealthiest artist, would make at least 50 million pounds after deducting his manager Frank Dunphy's commission and production costs, said dealers.

``Damien Hirst generates the most extraordinary energy,'' said William F. Ruprecht, Sotheby's president and chief executive, in an interview. ``He's in a unique position.''

The two-day sale in London had a hammer total of 95.7 million pounds, of which 2.7 million pounds represented works sold for charity, said the auction house.

Hirst told Bloomberg News last week that he was not being charged any seller's commission. Sotheby's charged 15.8 million pounds in buyers' premiums.

Ruprecht would not confirm that Sotheby's is considering applying the single-artist format to auctions of new work by other names in the contemporary-art world.

``I don't think a sale like this is so repeatable,'' he said. ``We don't pretend to be Jay Jopling or Larry Gagosian.''

Diamond Cabinet

The top price in the concluding afternoon session of the auction was the double-upper estimate 1.8 million pounds with fees paid for a 4-foot, 6-inch-wide gold-plated diamond cabinet, titled ``Unknown Pleasures.'' It was bought by Cheyenne Westphal, Sotheby's European chairman of contemporary art, bidding on the telephone on behalf of a client.

Elsewhere bidding was more restrained. The zebra-in- formaldehyde sculpture, ``The Incredible Journey,'' sold to a telephone bidder for 1.1 million pounds with fees against a lower estimate of 2 million pounds.

Two installation pieces, ``Time to Kill'' and ``Killing Time,'' featuring empty office desks in glass cases, both failed to sell after being given a lower valuation of 400,000 pounds each. The final session totaled 16.7 million pounds with fees, right on the upper estimate, said Sotheby's.

(Scott Reyburn writes about the art market for Bloomberg News. Opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer on the story: Scott Reyburn in London at sreyburn@hotmail.com.

Last Updated: September 16, 2008 16:49 EDT