# Damien Hirst artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/damien-hirst/
Profile generated: 2026-04-29T01:18:58.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1965-06-07
- Nationality: British, English
- Movements: Young British Artists (YBAs), Conceptual art
- Common media: Sculpture, Installation art, Painting, Printmaking, Mixed media

## About Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst (born 7 June 1965, Bristol, England) is a British artist best known as a leading figure of the Young British Artists (YBAs), the generation that reshaped the UK contemporary art scene in the 1990s. Working across sculpture, installation, painting, and printmaking, Hirst became internationally recognized for works that confront themes of mortality, medicine, and the fragility of life. His career was propelled through close association with collector Charles Saatchi during the 1990s, and he has since become one of the most commercially prominent living artists. Major institutions including Tate, the Museum of Modern Art (New York), and the Centre Pompidou hold his work in their collections. Hirst's practice spans formaldehyde-preserved animal sculptures, pharmaceutical-themed spot and pill paintings, spin paintings, butterfly compositions, and large-scale installations.

## Common works and media

Hirst's auction-encountered works span several major series. The Natural History works feature animals preserved in formaldehyde, including his iconic shark sculpture. Spot paintings (the Pharmaceutical series) are grid-based canvases of uniformly colored circles, produced in many sizes and editions. Spin paintings are created on a rotating surface, producing radial color patterns. Butterfly works range from real butterfly wing compositions to kaleidoscope-style paintings. Medicine cabinets present arranged pharmaceutical packaging as sculptural objects. Prints and multiples form a substantial portion of his auction presence, including screen prints, woodcuts, and etchings derived from his major series. Collectors may also encounter diamond-dusted works, skull-themed pieces, and stained-glass window constructions.

## Market and appraisal context

Damien Hirst maintains one of the deepest auction footprints of any living contemporary artist, with 3,718 lots catalogued in the Appraisily auction record index since May 2004 and 1,974 of those carrying a realized price. His auction presence spans major international houses (Christie's, Sotheby's, Bonhams) alongside a wide network of regional and specialist firms including Forum Auctions, Tate Ward Auctions, Roseberys, Rago Arts and Auction Center, Freeman's, Wright, and Louiza Auktion & Associés. Price dispersion is extreme: the recorded range runs from a floor of roughly $10 for small prints to $5,670,000 for top-tier unique works, with a median of $3,500 and a 75th percentile at $9,500. This spread reflects the fundamentally bifurcated nature of Hirst's market—high-volume editioned prints and multiples dominate the lower and middle tiers, while unique sculptures, large-scale paintings, and iconic series works command premium prices at the major houses. Liquidity remains strong but is declining: 665 priced lots appeared in the trailing twelve months compared with 1,033 in the prior twelve-month period, a roughly 36% drop in volume that may reflect market saturation of recent editions (notably The Currency and Empresses series) as well as broader contemporary-art softening. Recent comparable lots show The Currency prints (2016/2022) trading between £1,200 and £10,000 depending on the house and specific work, a Cathedral-series print (Palais des Papes, 2007) achieving $20,000 at Freeman's, and spin paintings, butterfly works, and skull-themed pieces selling in the €550–€1,100 band at continental houses. The Empresses laminated giclée series (H10-1 through H10-5, 2022) appears frequently but with mixed results—some lots realizing prices around £1,200–£1,300 and others going unsold.

## Auction-house-backed market evidence

Damien Hirst maintains one of the deepest auction footprints of any living contemporary artist, with 3,718 lots catalogued in the Appraisily auction record index since May 2004 and 1,974 of those carrying a realized price. His auction presence spans major international houses (Christie's, Sotheby's, Bonhams) alongside a wide network of regional and specialist firms including Forum Auctions, Tate Ward Auctions, Roseberys, Rago Arts and Auction Center, Freeman's, Wright, and Louiza Auktion & Associés. Price dispersion is extreme: the recorded range runs from a floor of roughly $10 for small prints to $5,670,000 for top-tier unique works, with a median of $3,500 and a 75th percentile at $9,500. This spread reflects the fundamentally bifurcated nature of Hirst's market—high-volume editioned prints and multiples dominate the lower and middle tiers, while unique sculptures, large-scale paintings, and iconic series works command premium prices at the major houses. Liquidity remains strong but is declining: 665 priced lots appeared in the trailing twelve months compared with 1,033 in the prior twelve-month period, a roughly 36% drop in volume that may reflect market saturation of recent editions (notably The Currency and Empresses series) as well as broader contemporary-art softening. Recent comparable lots show The Currency prints (2016/2022) trading between £1,200 and £10,000 depending on the house and specific work, a Cathedral-series print (Palais des Papes, 2007) achieving $20,000 at Freeman's, and spin paintings, butterfly works, and skull-themed pieces selling in the €550–€1,100 band at continental houses. The Empresses laminated giclée series (H10-1 through H10-5, 2022) appears frequently but with mixed results—some lots realizing prices around £1,200–£1,300 and others going unsold.

### Appraisal notes

Appraisily uses auction-record signals like these as a starting framework for fair-market and replacement-value estimates, then layers in item-specific evidence. For a Hirst work, the appraisal process would combine these 3,718 auction records with photographs of the actual piece, measured dimensions, medium identification (oil, screen print, giclée, mixed media, formaldehyde specimen, etc.), signature and edition stamps, catalogue raisonné references (once the HENI digital catalogue is published), condition reports (especially critical for formaldehyde works, laminated surfaces, and works on paper), documented provenance chain, and a focused comparable-sale analysis filtering for the same series, similar edition position, comparable dimensions, and same medium. The wide price distribution means that selecting appropriate comparables is essential—comparing a small spin painting on paper to a unique formaldehyde sculpture would produce a misleading estimate. Currency denomination must also be normalized, as the records span GBP, USD, and EUR.

### Valuation factors

- Series identification: Natural History (formaldehyde), Spot (Pharmaceutical), Spin, Butterfly, Medicine Cabinet, The Currency, Empresses, and Cathedral series each occupy distinct market tiers
- Unique work vs. edition: unique paintings and sculptures trade at materially different levels than editioned prints and multiples; edition size and specific edition number within a run affect value
- Date of execution: early 1990s YBA-period works carry a significant premium over later production; works dated before 2000 are generally more sought after
- Dimensions and scale: larger works command higher prices within the same series; small works on paper or miniature prints sit at the lower end of the range
- Condition: formaldehyde preservation integrity, surface condition of painted works, lamination state of giclée prints, and paper condition for prints are all material factors
- Provenance: documented ownership history, gallery invoices, exhibition records, and inclusion in notable collections increase confidence and value
- Auction-house tier: results from Christie's and Sotheby's tend to reflect the top of the market; regional houses like Tate Ward, Roseberys, or Louiza Auktion often realize lower prices for comparable works
- Currency and market location: GBP, USD, and EUR results must be normalized; London and New York sales typically produce stronger results than continental or regional auctions

### Collector notes

- Hirst's market offers very high liquidity—over 600 lots traded in the past year across dozens of houses—making it relatively straightforward to buy or sell, but the sheer volume of editioned works means that not all pieces will appreciate
- Trailing twelve-month auction volume dropped from 1,033 to 665 lots, a 36% decline that may indicate softening demand for recent editions; collectors should monitor whether this stabilizes or continues
- The Currency NFT-linked prints (2016/2022) are actively traded and currently sell in the £1,200–£10,000 range depending on the work and house; these are accessible entry points but their long-term value depends on the NFT project's cultural staying power
- Empresses series giclées (H10-1 through H10-5, 2022) appear frequently at auction with mixed sell-through—some realize around £1,200 while others go unsold, suggesting the market may be approaching saturation for this edition
- For collectors seeking stronger value retention, early unique works (pre-2000), large-scale paintings, and Natural History sculptures remain the most defensible segment of Hirst's market
- Regional auction houses regularly offer Hirst prints and small works at accessible price points (€550–€1,100 for spin paintings, butterfly, and skull-themed prints), but comparable lots at Christie's or Sotheby's in the same series may realize significantly different prices
- The forthcoming HENI catalogue raisonné may introduce new authentication standards; collectors acquiring works now should ensure they have strong provenance documentation in case the catalogue's criteria affect attribution

### Market caveats

- Price data spans three currencies (GBP, USD, EUR) and has not been normalized to a single currency; cross-currency comparisons require current exchange-rate adjustment
- Several recent lots in the sample show null price-realized values, indicating either unsold lots or results not yet reported; this skews the visible sample toward successful sales
- The recorded maximum price of $5,670,000 represents an extreme outlier (likely a unique sculpture or major painting) and is not representative of the typical Hirst auction lot, where the median is $3,500
- Studio-assistant production is integral to Hirst's conceptual practice and does not indicate inauthenticity, but collectors unfamiliar with this model should understand it before applying traditional authorship-based valuation assumptions
- The 36% year-over-year decline in lot volume (1,033 to 665) should be interpreted cautiously—it may reflect market saturation from recent large editions rather than declining artist relevance
- Auction records capture only the secondary market; primary-market prices through Hirst's galleries (Gagosian, White Cube) may differ substantially from auction realizations

### Market evidence sources

- Appraisily auction record index: https://appraisily.com/api/scraper-search/artists/damien-hirst/seo-profile?recentLimit=24&relatedLimit=0
- Invaluable / Martel Maides: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-damien-hirst-british-b-1965-705-c-fed042d592
- Invaluable / Tate Ward Auctions: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-damien-hirst-british-1965-reaching-out-from-the-currency-2016-130-c-2747d75392
- Invaluable / Freeman's: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-damien-hirst-british-b-1965-palais-des-papes-from-cathedral-2007-7-c-fe39cf92e7
- Invaluable / Roseberys: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-damien-hirst-9294-i-m-never-going-to-pick-up-my-shoes-from-the-currency-2016-181-c-3a43cd21fc
- Invaluable / Wright: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-damien-hirst-6052-through-the-stars-from-the-currency-121-c-501c8508a8
- Invaluable / Lion and Unicorn: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-damien-hirst-british-1965-laminated-giclee-the-empresses-wu-zetian-h10-1-95-c-54f99ff161
- Invaluable / Lion and Unicorn: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-damien-hirst-british-1965-laminated-giclee-the-empresses-our-jahan-h10-2-217-c-ef965632f5
- Invaluable / Tate Ward Auctions: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-damien-hirst-british-1965-wu-zetian-h10-1-2022-276-c-36e536de11
- Invaluable / Tate Ward Auctions: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-damien-hirst-british-1965-theodora-h10-3-2022-275-c-009988ac2f
- Invaluable / Tate Ward Auctions: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-damien-hirst-british-1965-taytu-betul-h10-5-2022-274-c-f2470ba285
- Invaluable / Tate Ward Auctions: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-damien-hirst-british-1965-suiko-h10-4-2022-273-c-3ef0d9f9d0
- Invaluable / Tate Ward Auctions: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-damien-hirst-british-1965-nur-jahan-h10-2-2022-272-c-68efe338c0
- Invaluable / Tate Ward Auctions: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-damien-hirst-british-1965-reaching-out-from-the-currency-2016-157-c-5504dacb3a
- Invaluable / Louiza Auktion & Associés: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-damien-hirst-ne-en-1965-untitled-147-c-a65ab1b0fb
- Invaluable / Louiza Auktion & Associés: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-damien-hirst-ne-en-1965-untitled-146-c-877ede3c1f
- Invaluable / Louiza Auktion & Associés: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-damien-hirst-ne-en-1965-untitled-145-c-850ba1b48d
- Invaluable / Louiza Auktion & Associés: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-damien-hirst-ne-en-1965-untitled-144-c-0f99fd7004
- Invaluable / Louiza Auktion & Associés: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-damien-hirst-ne-en-1965-skull-143-c-f662f919ec
- Invaluable / Louiza Auktion & Associés: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-damien-hirst-ne-en-1965-butterfly-142-c-3f2c8bb98b
- Invaluable / Louiza Auktion & Associés: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-damien-hirst-ne-en-1965-butterfly-141-c-733085d59c
- Invaluable / Louiza Auktion & Associés: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-damien-hirst-ne-en-1965-star-spin-painting-140-c-6635a18c31
- Invaluable / Louiza Auktion & Associés: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-damien-hirst-ne-en-1965-cross-spin-painting-139-c-8cb4bf306d
- Invaluable / Louiza Auktion & Associés: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-damien-hirst-ne-en-1965-skull-spin-painting-138-c-c0e979a147

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist identity research from institutional authority files and museum collections with auction records, sale dates, realized prices, comparable lots, and auction-house context when those records are available. This page draws on sources including the Library of Congress, VIAF, Wikidata, MoMA, Tate, the RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History, and the artist's official site.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q294326
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damien_Hirst
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no93026968
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/96063124/
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/6905
- Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/damien-hirst-2308
- RKD: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/128845
- Damien Hirst / HENI: https://www.damienhirst.com/