Damien Hirst’s brush with democracy

As the art world gears up for its autumn round of money-making, prestige-fluffing and party-hopping, all eyes are focused on Damien Hirst's 223-piece sale at Sotheby's in London on September 15.

Placing so much work in a public saleroom at one time is fraught with risk. It shows that Britain's wealthiest living artist has lost none of his mischievous punk spirit. Private dealers, miffed at being shut out in favour of an auction house, are warning that if it goes wrong, not only could Hirst's reputation and valuations suffer, but the entire art economy - so far, remarkably immune to the credit crunch - could itself tip into recession.

Hirst, who makes the cover of Time magazine today - 'Artist As Rock Star' - claims his Sotheby's sale is an exercise in "democracy". But it's clearly a challenge to art dealers who have also grown

fabulously wealthy operating virtual cartels around his and other superstar artists' work. A move like this renders them virtually powerless, and puts their stockpiles of his work at risk of devaluation.

In this market where control of supply is king, only half-a-dozen
artists including Hirst, and the Americans Jeff Koons and Richard Prince are now powerful enough to cut formal ties to their long-time
dealers, operating essentially as free agents.

Hirst is thought to have earmarked the estimated £65m proceeds from the Sotheby's sale to turn his 300-room, neo-Gothic Toddington Manor home into a massive showroom; the American Richard Prince, who recently bought his own G5 jet, is selling work directly from his museum show at the Serpentine Gallery.

If anyone is going to gain from this increasingly naked