Damien Hirst will see his own drawings burn in the culmination of his Grant NFT experiment ‘The Currency’

Damien Hirst is famous for submerging a dead shark and a bisected sheep in tanks of formaldehyde, but he says his new NFT project is his “most exciting by far.”

“The Currency,” as it’s called, will offer 10,000 unique NFTs to collectors who will then have to choose whether they want to keep the token or an original work on paper – but they can’t have both.

With the election deadline looming tomorrow, Hirst has announced that he will literally burn any of the physical artworks that have not been picked up in exchange for a token.

Damien Hirst, Love still burns (2016). Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd. Courtesy of Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2022.

The destruction of the artworks will take place during an exhibition, also called “The Currency”, at the Newport Street Gallery in London, which starts on September 9.

“Artwork will be burned at a specified time each day during the display. These times will be published in advance, says a statement from the artist.

Later this fall, during Frieze week in October, the gallery will host a closing event to burn the remaining artworks, with Hirst in attendance.

According to a running tally, the numbers are weighted in favor of the NFTs with 5,713 tokens remaining and 4,219 having been traded for physical artwork.

Hirst made the physical artworks in 2016 with enamel paint on handmade paper. Each work is numbered, titled, stamped and signed by the artist on the back. Additional authenticity features include a watermark, a microdot and a hologram containing a portrait of the artist. No color is repeated twice in any artwork.

The titles were generated through a machine learning program using some of the artist’s favorite lyrics, including “Well my pit”, “Dream about going down”, “Open the canyons” and “Love is born here”.

The art and technology company Heni Analytics has produced a monthly report on buying and selling Hirst’s NFTs on the secondary market, which have fallen sharply in value since the project began and as crypto prices plunge, according to Art newspaper.

The initial report notes that between July 30 and August 31, 2021, there were 2,036 sales of “The Currency,” totaling $47.9 million. By comparison, just 170 sales last month took place, raising $1.4 million. However, the resale of physical works seems to be doing better. In January, one of the original paintings sold at Phillips London for £18,900 ($26,000).

Hirst is no stranger to making volatile and high-risk maneuvers at the highest levels of the art market. After Hirst asked a fisherman in Australia to catch and kill a 14ft shark, he submerged it in formaldehyde and sold it to Charles Saatchi on commission for £50,000.

In 2006, the work was titled The physical impossibility of death in the mind of someone livingsold to hedge fund manager Steve Cohen for a reported $8 million, although by that time the shark had deteriorated enough to require replacement.

And in 2008, Hirst made headlines for his diamond-encrusted skull For God’s sakewhich sold to a consortium of investors for a hefty $100 million – but then raised eyebrows when it emerged that Hirst himself was a member of the consortium.

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