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It seems that this has not been the case. Hirst's "Beautiful Inside My Head Forever" auction marked a sort of last hurrah for the artist. He enjoyed phenomenal, record breaking sales. His work, _The Golden Calf_, went for 18.5 million, beating Hirst's own record of 17.2 million for a work of his sold the previous summer \[3\]. But since the historic sale, he has significant decreases in sales of other works. In following auctions, about two\- thirds of his work were bought-in \[2\]. !Screen-shot-2010-02-06-at-10.10.24-AM1.png|border=1,width=348,height=257! !Screen-shot-2010-02-06-at-10.11.15-AM1.png|border=1,width=320,height=256! |
Perhaps Hirst has just been pushing the limits for too long and his straight to the auction house approach was the last straw. Artists never go straight to auction, as a rule. It would make them appear too eager for money and would likely decrease the value of their works. Perhaps Hirst was able to initially get away with this as a result of his major success, and because his works deal directly with issues of commodification. Since Hirst's show, there has been much talk about the implications this event held for the rest of the art world. Would it be possible for others to bypass the system? This would be a dealer's nightmare. Usually profit is split fifty-fifty between artist and dealer.
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Since Hirst's decline in popularity over recent years, he has begun painting with his own hand again. Will he be able to show the market that he is capable of this kind of art? Will his fame as a factory style artist overshadow his other artistic attempts? Or will Hirst simply be unable to prove himself as an actual painter? Consider his "No Love Lost" show at the Wallace Collection in London. In a review of the show, the _Independent_ ran an article titled "Are Hirst's Paintings Any Good? No, They're not Worth Looking At." The article is summed up at the end with "the freak show goes on" \[6\]. !exhibition_77_fullimagepath__exhibition_77_teaserimagepath__thumb.jpg|border=1!
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Perhaps Hirst will never regain the commercial success that he enjoyed up until his "Beautiful Inside My Head Forever" show. Perhaps it will be a long time before we see another artist of such rock star magnitude that will try to turn the artworld on its head.
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