Damien Hirst’s brush with democracy

As the art world gears up for its autumn round of money-making, prestige-fluffing and party-hopping, all eyes are focused on Damien Hirst's 223-piece sale at Sotheby's in London on September 15.

Placing so much work in a public saleroom at one time is fraught with risk. It shows that Britain's wealthiest living artist has lost none of his mischievous punk spirit. Private dealers, miffed at being shut out in favour of an auction house, are warning that if it goes wrong, not only could Hirst's reputation and valuations suffer, but the entire art economy - so far, remarkably immune to the credit crunch - could itself tip into recession.

Hirst, who makes the cover of Time magazine today - 'Artist As Rock Star' - claims his Sotheby's sale is an exercise in "democracy". But it's clearly a challenge to art dealers who have also grown fabulously wealthy operating virtual cartels around his and other superstar artists' work. A move like this renders them virtually powerless, and puts their stockpiles of his work at risk of devaluation.

In this market where control of supply is king, only half-a-dozen
artists including Hirst, and the Americans Jeff Koons and Richard Prince are now powerful enough to cut formal ties to their long-time
dealers, operating essentially as free agents.

Hirst is thought to have earmarked the estimated £65m proceeds from the Sotheby's sale to turn his 300-room, neo-Gothic Toddington Manor home into a massive showroom; the American Richard Prince, who recently bought his own G5 jet, is selling work directly from his museum show at the Serpentine Gallery.

If anyone is going to gain from this increasingly naked relationship between money and art it might as well be them, these superstars seem to be saying. "The big money has traditionally been made in the secondary (resale) market - without the artist's participation," Hirst reasons. "But as artists get smarter they want to control the secondary market."

If the art market is now only about money, then Hirst is the best placed to say it. "I think it used to be more fun, more relaxed and enjoyable," he says. "Art is a lot more popular than it used
to be, there's a lot more interest in it, a lot more money around, and it's more acceptable as currency. When it gets to be like that you have to be bit more careful."

At auction, the hammer price (plus the house commission, a system of tricky caveats and complex third party deals) is the market price fair and square. That, Hirst reasons, is not always the case with a dealer. "It's a very cynical way of looking at it, but for a gallery it's almost better to sell to the person with the least amount of money - because they'll be able to get it back, re-sell it and make a commission each time. But it's in the artist's interest to sell for the most amount of money."

Still, Hirst cautions against reading too much into his salesroom
caper - he's a noted master of playing dealer against dealer and,
presumably here, saleroom against saleroom. "There are only two
important people in any transaction - the buyer and the seller, the

guy who makes it and the guy who buys it," he reasons. "Galleries are only middlemen... and the middlemen in any business are always changing."
Pre-sale viewing starts today at Sotheby’s, 34-35 New Bond Street, London, and continues until the auction on September 15 ·