The Dream

The total was a record for a sale of works by one artist. It was estimated the evening would fetch as much as £62.4 million pounds.

That record was broken along with so many other Damien Hirst Stories.

Included in the auction was a whole new body of work that covers the complete range of Hirst’s output and more. And while heDamien reputably played snooked with world champion ROnnie O'Sullivan, the bids just got higher.

Damien Hirst with The Golden Calf. Credit Prudence Cumming

The two day sale whichstarted at Sotheby's New York,  included 223 lots,has already exceeded £65 million estimate with 227 lots to go.

Among the works to be offered will be new and exciting variations on many of the key themes that have defined Hirst’s work to date.

'I thought the stock market would affect the auction, but it didn't,'' said London-based  dealer Micky Tiroche in an interview. 'But the sale went excellent!'

Hirst's trademark animal-in-formaldehyde works captured four of the top five prices, led by the bull calf with 18-carat gold horns and hooves. The winning bid for `The Golden Calf'' came from Cheyenne Westphal, Sotheby's European chairman of contemporary art. This was well above the original estimate of £6 Million and shows that the art market at least is not in recession yet - particulary when confronted with one of the UK's most dynamic and indpired artists of his generation.

The price was a record for the artist in pounds, said Sotheby's. The previous record for a Hirst was 9.7 million pounds at Sotheby's, London, in June 2007 for the 2002 pill vitrine piece, `Lullaby Spring,' according to saleroom result tracker ArtNet.
`The Kingdom,' a black-framed tank containing a 7-foot, 9-inch tiger shark, was bought for 9.6 million pounds by Bruno Vinciguerra, chief operating officer of Sotheby's based in New York, also bidding for a client.