Damien Hirst plans art that can be made and sold in his name up to 200 years after his death
In a new interview, artist Damien Hirst revealed his plans for “posthumous drawings”—instructions for art that can be made and sold in his name up to 200 years after his death, with one work to be made each year.
“The idea is to have a certificate that says ‘Year One after Damien Dies: you’ve got the right to make this sculpture and you can trade the certificate before it isn’t made,’” Hirst explained in a rare interview with The Times.
The award-winning artist elaborated on this idea, adding, “I had an idea for a sculpture of a piggy in formaldehyde back in 1991 that I never made. So, if that was in book 145 you could make that pig [145 years after his death] and date it 1991.”
Hirst then confirmed in the interview that he’d be selling art futures, in the same way traders sell commodities futures. “My manager calls them the preposterous paintings,” he laughed.
Hirst here possibly references a recent controversy, which suggested that some of the artist’s works made in 2016 were labelled as being from the 1990s. Hirst had said then that the dates referred to the years he conceived the works. This reasoning continues into his “posthumous drawings” idea.
However, originally, when the paintings went on sale via Hirst’s manager’s company, Heni, advertisements stated: “The physical artworks were created by hand in 2016 using enamel paint on handmade paper.” Interestingly, two of the paintings seem to be dated accurately, with one reading ‘2018’ and another ‘2021’. According to Hirst’s lawyers, these paintings must have been “erroneously misdated following later changes of the naming and titling of the works.”
In 2023, a woman from Palm Beach, Florida, crashed into a Damien Hirst sculpture estimated to be worth $3 million. She reportedly drove her Rolls-Royce through the backyard of collector and Museum of Modern Art trustee Steven Tananbau, but the artwork sustained minimal damage.
