Damien Hirst sale earns £111 million

Damien Hirst auction makes £111 million in two days

Damien Hirst has shattered the world record for an auction dedicated to the works of a single artist, with the sale of 218 pieces for an incredible £111.6 million. Defying critics who speculated that the auction may well tank in the face of the current global economic crisis, Hirst's most expensive lot, The Golden Calf, a bull in formaldehyde with hooves and horns of 18-carat gold, sold for a cool £10.3 million.

Hirst is said personally to have earned a little over £95.7 million from the Sotheby's sale. His manager claimed earlier this month that Hirst was now a dollar billionaire.

The controversial artist, best known to many for his use of animal cadavers, trounced the previous record of £11.3 million raised when 88 Picassos were sold by Sotheby's in New York in 1993 reports the Times.

There were, however, five lots which failed to sell and others did not reach the dizzy financial heights anticipated. Nobody went for the piece Killing Time - a plastic box filled with a desk, chair, pills and a watch - and a zebra in a tank of formaldehyde, named The Incredible Journey, barely scraped over the £1 million mark (its estimate had been £2-3 million).

Somehow, however, we don't imagine Hirst will be too disappointed with the result.