Once we offered savages beautiful beads

[Евгений]

Democracy plutocrats
  Matthew Bown
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  Once we offered savages beautiful beads in exchange for gold, now - no less beautiful butterflies Hirst's dead in exchange for nefterubli

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Personal auction of works by Damien Hirst, which Sotheby's arranged in London on 15-16 September, was positioned - and this is not the first time in the world of modern art - as a kind of breakthrough. Hirst's decision to sell new (established over the last year or two) of the auction was filed as a revolution in the art business since left behind and gallery owners and art dealers. They have become something like a shadowy middlemen who maliciously jacking up prices for raw materials and products, thereby ruining both producers and consumers. And it does not matter what Hirst and buyers of his works beggars can not be called. No matter what Sotheby's is taking a percentage of sales, it is quite comparable to those that ask for gallery owners. No matter that the agent Hirst Jay Jopling of White Cube gallery stuffing price for the twenty lots, and, apparently, earned in this auction round sum. Hurst spoke about all this as the democratization of the art trade. Well, the politician who promises to voters that democracy will become more instinctively does not trust. Similarly, the use of the term "democratization" in relation to art-business, by definition sounds suspiciously. Glamorous auction house Sotheby's strange looks in the role of an ally in the struggle for democracy, thought-provoking and price tags of a million pounds and even more for individual work.

In fact, this auction has demonstrated a new stage of evolution of Damien Hirst - a painter, he turned into a full-fledged entrepreneur, a sort of Richard Branson's art world. His entrepreneurial talents were evident long ago. It was he who organized the 1988 exhibition Freeze, where Charles Saatchi bought the first work in the spirit of what later dubbed BritArtom, marking the beginning of a trend, which has since been feeding more than one dozen contemporary British artists. During the 1990's he opened a restaurant in a prestigious area of Pharmacy in Notting Hill. After the closure of his situation was successfully sold by the same Sotheby's. More recently, Hurst founded the publishing house Other Criteria, which publishes books and reproductions, specializing in works of his fellow BritArtu; in October this year, the publishing house plans to open a store on the most expensive shopping street in London's Bond Street. Hirst is also a big collector, no one doubts that sooner or later it will open a museum at his country mansion. He quit drinking and smoking; farewell to the style of life a la Francis Bacon, who was previously an integral part of his bad-boy image, he remembered that he was over forty, and, it seems, has decided to adjust to the role of machines for the production of money.
  

Hirst auction was the largest event in the calendar of London secular audience. Queue willing to get on the evening auction on Sept. 15 stretched along Bond Street, but many were left with nothing: only allowed inside for tickets. Stampede was such that Sotheby's has opened additional rooms, where hundreds of people stood watching video. At the auction was attended by many friends of Hearst and his allies in the art world: Tobias Meyer, head of modern art Sotheby's, which bought the work for collectors, Norman Rosenthal, former head of the Royal Academy, the artist Paul Fryer (he was soon going to open the exhibition in London with Hearst scale : its cost has already reached one million pounds), the artist Rachel Howard, who for many years and earned that draw a point on the famous serial canvases, and her husband Hugh Allan - Hirst's business partner, manager and accountant Hirst, Frank Dunphy, nicknamed Rottweiler, who has meeting with the artist to keep an eye for an entertainer, such as clown Coco. Hirst himself at the auction was not: open secret at this time he was playing billiards with the world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan in the trendy Groucho Club. At one point he called Dunphy and complained that the nervous system can not choose what to order: spaghetti Bolognese or spaghetti carbonara. "Judging by how things are going here, - said Dunphy, - you can afford both."

  
For those who care about the romance of money, it was really a dramatic day. September 15, when held on the evening auction and Hurst successfully drove buyers fruits of their labors at 70 million pounds - the venerable bank Lehman Brothers in New York went bankrupt, leaving thousands of people in London lost their jobs. It seemed that the crumbling foundations of the entire financial world. Such shocks especially deeply felt in England, where a third of the economy one way or another are financial services. But I do not think that on that evening in the auction was attended by many British collectors. The target audience for Sotheby's now are not residents of the West, suffered from a falling dollar and the collapse of financial institutions: they seek out new rich from Russia, China and India, whose state put together, thanks to high commodity prices, political connections and a rapidly growing economy. The work of Hirst primary resource of this cultural neo-colonialism: once, as I understand it, we offered savages beautiful beads in exchange for gold, but now we offer them no less beautiful butterflies Hirst's dead in exchange for nefterubli.
  
Pre-auction exhibition seen by a staggering number of visitors - 21 thousand, and the auction went well from the beginning. The first unit of "Paradise can wait" (butterflies, diamonds, oil on canvas) sold for £ 930 thousand (including commission), which significantly exceeded expectations (estimate £ 300-500 thousand), the picture went to Jay Jopling. The first big test was the sale of "Kingdom" (the shark in the tank) - by my count, at least the fourth such work of Hurst. It's his trademark - a variation on the very same thing, made famous by Saatchi and which he then sold to the owner of a hedge fund to Steven Cohen for the unthinkable in those days £ 6 million. According to reports, the Cohen's had problems with the storage of sharks, and Hirst had to make another. But these difficulties did not discourage buyers. Lot went for 9.5 million pounds (including commission), which greatly exceeded expectations. "Golden Calf» (The Golden Calf) - gold-plated animal - rated higher than the shark, but its final value is not exceeded the preliminary estimate: 10.3 million pounds (including commission), it was bought Francois Pinault, owner of Christie's. It is assumed that Russian buyers were very active: the Russian-speaking assistant Sotheby's Alina Davey, following telephone instructions book, bought for them thirteen lots. By the end of the evening was sold works of art by 70 million pounds, above the expected 62 million on the second day of selling relatively small works, and the proceeds added another 40 million All lots were sold.

By the standards of the auction, Monday night will come down quite a dramatic, but it is surprising how restrained and polite was the reaction of the audience: polite applause, when a job offer the unexpectedly high price. Who or what is applauded? Perhaps the courage (and perhaps foolishly) buyer. But even at the wrong concert at the Moscow Conservatory where you can hear more lively hand-clapping, not to mention the local football match. Simply put, the applause - that namby-pamby. Such events leave a feeling of spiritual emptiness: when art is reduced to the amounts of monetary units, flashing on the scoreboard, many feel that the conscience of their uncleanness.
  
Now opolchatsya at Hearst. This is predictable. While it was not clear how much he earns, the press saw in him an object of interest bohemians, another star of the entertainment industry. Since the results of Sotheby's auction open to the public, it became apparent that he is making huge sums by selling works essentially factory production. Quite naturally, the press, including art publications expose questioned his activities. Before the Sotheby's auction Newspaper The Art Newspaper published an article whose author has hinted that in the vaults of the gallery White Cube, Hirst represents, accumulated more than a hundred unsold works. The implication was that Hurst came the crisis of overproduction, and this auction is something like a season of sales in a department store. The Independent has focused on Rachel Howard, former assistant Hurst (it is now a successful independent artist in the UK it is Haunch of Venison). The author points to the monstrous disproportion between the amounts that it receives from sales of own works and those that she did for Hearst. In yesterday's (September 17) Daily Mail published an article titled "World of Art in the City exceeded its shameless greed» (The greed of the art world is even more obscene than the City's), as well as to expose the dark past Irishman Dunphy - Hirst's manager, who allegedly supported the terrorist group IRA. British tabloids do not feed bread, give only celebrity to put into place and tell the world about his or her secrets. You can imagine, for example, a special investigative journalism, devoted to identify and locate long-lost father Hirst. As for the hero for the day, after the auction, he spoke quite in keeping with its brand plutocratic democracy: "I love art and this proves I'm not alone and we were all waiting for a brighter future».