Hirst Fights Diluted Market With $435 Chair, Prints, Galleries
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Damien Hirst’s medicine cabinets were unpacked from crates stamped “Fragile” at L & M Arts gallery in New York. Guided by precise instructions, eight assistants filled them with drug containers for today’s opening.
Hirst’s market has also needed careful handling by managers, dealers and auctioneers since he unloaded 218 lots of new work at Sotheby’s in London two years ago. The sale raised $199 million, according to Sotheby’s. This year through September the artist’s auction revenue for painting and sculpture totaled $4.8 million, according to London-based art market research company ArtTactic.