Damien Steven Hirst was born on the 7th June 1965 in Bristol, England, and is an artist, art collector as well as an entrepreneur. Hirst dominated in the scene of British art in the 1990s as a member of the group of Young British Artists, and in 1995 he won the reputable Turner Prize. Damien has been active in the art industry since 1980.
How much is the net worth of Damien Hirst? It has been estimated by authoritative sources that the total size of his wealth is as much as $300 million, as of the data presented in the middle of 2016, which could esily rise as the value of his artistic works may increase – art as well as art collections are the main sources of Hirst’s net worth.
Damien Hirst Net Worth $300 Million
To begin with, Damien grew up in Leeds. His stepfather was an engineer and his mother worked in the administration of the Citizens Advice Bureau. He was unruly as a child, and drawing was the only area in which he was able to distinguish himself positively -he was especially impressed by the works of Francis Davison. He studied at the Leeds College of Art, and then he moved to London where he worked for two years on a construction site. Rejected from Saint Martins School of Art, he entered Goldsmith’s College of Art in 1986 to study fine arts. One of his main teachers was Michael Craig-Martin.
In the 1980s, he undertook the work of a sculptor and curator, which marked the birth of the group named Young British Artists. His first solo exhibition “In and Out of Love” was held in 1991, but since 1988, Damien Hirst has been creating installations in which he deals with the relationship between art, life and death. During his studies, he worked in a morgue and the theme of death is central to his work – in 1991, he also worked on a series making animals carcasse – the animals (sometimes halved, exposing organs) were immersed in formalin and presented in aquariums. Perhaps not fopr everyone, but his works constantly contribute to his net worth.
He has also made a video for the band Blur, “The Country House” (1995), a short film “Hanging Around” (1996), as well as paintings in collaboration with David Bowie. In the middle of 2007, one of his works – “Lullaby Spring” – a metal medicine cabinet containing 6136 pills, handmade and individually painted was sold for $19.2 million, the second most expensive work ever sold at auction belonging to a living artist, after a portrait painted by Lucian Freud. In the middle of 2007, Damien Hirst set a new record by selling for $100 million work a platinum skull of a man encrusted with 8601 diamonds. The journalist and art critic Ben Lewis revealed that the work did not find a single buyer, and was actually bought by a group of investors including Hirst himself, to preserve his rating on the art market. In the autumn of 2008, Hirst organized an auction of his most recent works at Sotheby’s in London, which was a great success with all items sold well beyond estimates.
In the autumn of 2015, Damien Hirst opened his own gallery, Newport Street Gallery, located in the south of London. It occupies three Victorian buildings with a total area of 3,400 m2. This new space is intended to present solo and group exhibitions of artists loved by Damien Hirst. The inaugural exhibition that accompanied the opening of the gallery was called Power Stations, and was dedicated to the works of John Hoyland.
Finally, in the personal life of the artist, he was in a long term relationship with Maia Norman between 1992 and 2012; they have three children together.
