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Notorious Hirst Painting for Auction
27/02/2008
THE PAINTING by British artist Damien Hirst which gained notoriety when it sold for a meagre €380 at the anonymous charity ‘Hirst-a-like’ auction at the Flat Lake Festival in Scotshouse last August is expected to make some €150,000 when it goes under the hammer in Dublin next month.
The most expensive living artist Damien Hirst had specially commissioned the painting for the inaugural Flat Lake Literary and Arts Festival took place at Hilton Park, organized by cult filmmaker Kevin Allen and writer Pat McCabe. The controversial artist was named the most expensive living artist last month after the sale of a medicine chest, Lullaby Spring, for £9.65 million at Sotheby's in London.
The auction saw Hirst’s painting mixed among other artist’s paintings for local bidders and art collectors alike to try to identify. The auction took place in the estate barn and featured forty-two paintings. The auction had raised €21,450 for the Flat Lake Festival fund, with Bridget Fitzgerald bidding the highest at €4,200 for a Hirst copy, before the Hirst was revealed to the lucky bidder.
It was a colourful painting which was created for his Spin series and had sold for a mere €380 to film producer Allan Maloney who graciously gave up his Hirst so it could be re-auctioned with a reserve of €20,000 much to the delight of the crowds. It came down to three bidders and eventually two determined art collectors with the successful bidder Kevin Spillan from Wicklow collecting the original Hirst for €95,000.
Mr Spillan has now decided to sell the painting on. “We bought it for a client and now we have decided to re-introduce it at auction. At the moment Damien Hirst is hot. It would be a good buy for a corporate, like a hotel, and we've had a lot of interest” he said.
The painting will have a guide price this time of up to €150,000 but with the notoriety it has gained the bidding is expected to be fiercely contested.
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