Last May it was announced that English schlock artist Damien Hirst would be creating his most expensive work ever, as if money were the objet d’art. It was to be a life-size human skull cast in platinum and encased in 8,500 diamonds, the largest of which would be 50 karats. The cost of materials for the well-named For the Love of God would be $10-12 million and, adding in labor, the expected retail cost to the customer would be $100 million – the world’s most expensive work of art. At the time, Hirst’s statement was, “I just want to celebrate life by saying to hell with death.” A year later, the celebratory work is finished – 8,601 stones weighing a total of 1,106.18 carats, with a pricetag of $100 million – and will be unveiled in London at the White Cube gallery’s “Beyond Belief” show on June 3. It’s already the city’s hot ticket, with art lovers restricted to only five minutes with the skull. Turns out creating the world’s most expensive piece of art, said Hirst, is “a lot less stressful than putting a bloody great shark in a tank of formaldehyde.” (Source)

(Photos: Hirst and The Skull Beneath the Skin, silkscreen with diamond dust, 2005)