Damien Hirst unleashes the beasts

Damien Hirst is expecting his biggest pay day yet – and he’s had more than a few whoppers over the years – when he sells 223 artworks at Sotheby’s in September. The ageing enfant terrible, who is putting the work directly through the auction house (an unprecedented move, cutting out his dealers Jay Jopling at White Cube and Larry Gagosian in New York), is expecting to make £65m from the two-day sale.
 
Among the works is a new shark in formaldehyde – the first, The Physical Impossibility if Death in the Mind of the Living, sold for $8m in 2004. Others include a zebra called The Incredible Journey, a unicorn called The Dream  (pictured) and The Golden Calf, a bull with a golden disc on its head and 18 carat horns and hooves, all of them in vitrines and preserved in formaldehyde. The bull, which is the centrepiece of the sale, has an estimate of up to £12m.
 
Sotheby’s say there will also be a number of works in the £20,000 to £30,000 range. Hirst will donate some of the proceeds to his favourite charities, among them Survival International and Strummerville, the new music foundation established in the memory of the ex-Clash frontman Joe Strummer, who was a close friend of the artist.
 
Says an art world source: “This is a really important sale. The art world appears to be only the area of business insulated from the recession so far. Everyone will be watching. This could well prove the turning point.” ·