Nothing better sums up modern London as the decade burns down to its fag end than Damien Hirst’s diamond-studded skull. Like the city, “For the Love of God” is extravagant, international and morally ambiguous. A shrewd businessman as well as an artist, Mr Hirst’s fame and wealth are as much a product of globalisation as astronomic Mayfair property prices and rock-bottom labour rates for immigrant office cleaners.

“For the Love of God” was offered earlier this year for what one art expert described to me as the “eff off” price of £50m (€70m). I believe that is an art market term, like impasto or chiaroscuro. A mysterious consortium bought the blinged-up memento mori shortly after media speculation that it would not sell. Mr Hirst retained a stake, as any serial entrepreneur might in a business he had auctioned. Now he plans to send it on a three-year global tour, as if it were rock band Status Quo.