Hirst hopes to revolutionise art market with ‘Golden Calf’ – News, Art & Architecture – The Independent
a collection of previously unseen work by Damien Hirst that will be auctioned off this summer in a move that could revolutionise the sale of contemporary art.
A living artist has never before put a collection of brand new work straight on to the open market. Such pieces are usually sold through galleries and art dealers, usually to buyers who are known to them.
This method gives more control to the artist and opens up the sale to a much wider group of prospective buyers. Yesterday, art experts were predicting that the auction – the highlight of which is the gold calf, Hirst’s largest ever formaldehyde work – could mark a turning point in the way artists sell their work. Indeed, Hirst himself hinted that “the world’s changing – ultimately I need to see where this road leads”, adding that such an auction “[felt] like a natural evolution for contemporary art”.
GAAA! 12 million pounds to a single artist…how does Hirst get that market up so high? A true artrockstar, oh how I want to play these games…How about the goal of making the worlds most expensive piece of art…100 million dollars for the 
platinum skull covered in diamonds? Is it the fact that it’s produced by Hirst, the fact that it’s got material (diamonds and platinum) worth, or branding and marketing, a status symbol to own the most expensive and luxurious object…or is it as Tom Marioni has defined the artist as an individual “getting away with something”?
Published by Pete Ippel
Pete Ippel, the son of a dancer and a musician, was born in Oak Park, Illinois and has been surrounded by the arts since birth. He moved to Morris, Illinois in 1989 and started to participate in athletics rather than dance. After high school, Pete attended Cornell University where he received a BA in psychology and a BFA in photo / digital art making. He continued to follow his sporting dreams in the high jump, which culminated in a school record leap of 7 feet 1/2 inch in 2001.
In May 2004 he attained an MFA degree in the New Genres department of the San Francisco Art Institute. Presently Pete is a practicing artist whose work is in numerous private collections and has been exhibited in New York, California, and internationally.
Mr. Ippel resides in Working Artists Ventura, a sustainable artist community in southern California. In addition, he teaches art, is a web developer, an active blogger, and still high jumps from time to time.
As a passionate problem solver and a pragmatic optimist, Pete’s art and his life are full of exciting challenges.
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