A Hirst “Spin” painting in Tina Kim’s Upper West Side townhouse.
PHOTO: TIMOTHY DOYON © DAMIEN HIRST AND SCIENCE LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED / DACS, LONDON / ARS, NY 2020

Another work that has travelled around the world for its absolute madness and genius is definitely For the Love of God: made in 2007 and presented at the art gallery White Cube in London, It is a platinum skull made from a real skull of a young man who died at 37 years of age including his original teeth, covered by 8601 diamonds, for a total of 1,106.18 carats. On the front in particular is set a huge pink diamond and the title of the work seems to have been inspired by the mother of Hirst, who commented "for the love of God!" the umpteenth invention of the son; to date, the work is valued at $99 million. Also revolutionary is Damien Hirst’s approach to clientele often bypassing traditional tunnel channels and selling directly to the public through millionaire auctions like Sotheby’s - in 2008 at their auction, without gallery intermediation, 244 new works by Hirst have been sold - or dedicated art shops, so the serial production of spot-paintings and spin-paintings and the more modest works have been prolific, allowing many gallery owners and private individuals to own a prêt-à-porter piece of the artist.

Hirst’s first goal in his artistic poetics is to create an event, making important the shock that provokes his art that she herself and, like many other artists from Warhol onwards, no longer believes in the craftsmanship of the author, but with the intention of communicating ideas and being a brand. To date the artist has faced the world of the NFT with The Currency, his first collection of 10 thousand non-marketable tokens that correspond to 10 thousand unique physical works of art, hand-painted on paper and stored in a safe vault in the United Kingdom; Each of the NFT, available for purchase at the basic price of 2 thousand dollars, is subject to a very special contract: buyers must decide within a year whether to want to maintain ownership of the NFT or physical work. In the first case, the paperwork will be burned, while in the second case, instead, the rights to the work based on the blockchain will be lost. "This project is first and foremost about art and people, but it also investigates knowledge and value in general and in particular the value of art" explains Damien Hirst and asks the question: "What support does it give more value, more credit? Digital NFT or physical artwork?".

After graduating from language high school, love for art led Giulia De Sanctis (Turin, 1998) to obtain Communication and Enhancement of Artistic Heritage’ degree at the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti in Turin. She collaborated with art galleries in Turin as an assistant, dealing with the cataloging of the works, the preparation of exhibitions and the press office. She collaborates actively with various magazines and web publications of the art sector.