Damien Hirst burned a thousand of his works from the ‘Spot Paintings’ series after selling the Nft versions (the English acronym means’ Non Fungible Token). The artist asked buyers who bought pieces from his latest collection to choose the physical artwork or the NFT that represents it. Those who chose the NFT were told that the corresponding physical piece would be destroyed. When asked how he felt about burning the works, Hirst replied: “It’s beautiful, better than I expected.” The burning of the works took place today at the opening of the exhibition ‘The Currency’, Hirst wore silver metal work trousers and fire gloves, while he collected the pieces and burned them in a sort of fireplace in the Newport Street Gallery in London . It has been estimated that the works burned were worth a total of nearly 10 million pounds.
Other works from the collection will be burned until the exhibition closes on 30 October. “Many people think I’m burning millions of dollars worth of art, but that’s not the case – said Hirst – I’m just completing the transformation of these works of art from physical to NFT. The value of art, digital or physical. , which at best is difficult to define, will not be lost, but will be transferred to the NFT as soon as the paintings are burned. ” The works were created in 2016 with enamel paint on handmade paper and each numbered, titled, stamped and signed.
Before burning each piece of art, Hirst showed it to a camera to record its unique code in order to keep track of each piece set on fire.