Hirst retains stake in skull

Damien Hirst, the UK’s wealthiest artist, is part of the investment group that bought his diamond-encrusted skull for a record £50m earlier this week and that plans to resell the work.

The work, entitled For the Love of God , is a platinum cast of the skull of a 35-year-old, 18th-century man. It has the man’s original teeth and is covered with 8,601 near-flawless pave-set diamonds, including a large pink diamond worth more than £4m in the centre of its forehead. The £50m tag made the price the highest ever paid for the work of a living artist.

The skull, which cost at least £15m to make, had been on display at the White Cube gallery in London for the last three months until it was bought by the anonymous investors on Thursday.

A spokeswoman for White Cube said that Mr Hirst had retained an interest in the work to oversee a global tour to museums and galleries around the world. “It is the intention of the consortium to resell the work at a later date, although nothing is set in stone,” she said.

At the time of the skull’s unveiling, Mr Hirst said his aim was to depict “the ultimate victory over death, the most you could get from decoration, because our society loves money and wealth”.

Many in the art world had been sceptical that the work would fetch the asking price, especially at a time of uncertainty in financial markets. One potential buyer, who has since dropped out, was said to have been offered a 10 per cent discount.

It marks the second time in recent months that a work of Mr Hirst’s has set a record. In June his Lullaby Spring, part of the Four Seasons series, became the most expensive work by a living artist ever sold at auction.

The pill cabinet from the Four Seasons series was sold at Sotheby’s for £9.6m, claiming the record that had been held by the American artist Jasper Johns since January 1989.

The week in which Lullaby Spring was sold was the highest-totalling week of sales London had ever seen, according to Robin Woodhead, chief executive of Sotheby’s International. Experts said it also confirmed London’s ascent as a hub in the global art market.

The arrangement is not the first time Mr Hirst has retained an interest in his own work. He bought a collection of his art back from receivers when his Pharmacy restaurant went bust. The collection was sold at Sotheby’s for £11m in 2004.