Sorry, but imo these are terrible, the sort of thing one may find at a thrift store, or a second rate provincial art fair, just because they are by Damien Hirst, does not make them good, although I understand, that for some, simply having his name on them is enough.

Me too, but the art is generally not on sale in such places at $25,000 😂

Who got one of these? Thoughts?

I don’t know guys. $25k for this one. Seems like a weaker image. What do you think?

let me translate for you my good man.

lots of allocations for these have been turned down as the art market cools

we have literally hundreds to sell and we keep having to reallocate them 

this could take months 

we will eventually offer you one as a prized customer … but only after 2 other people have decided not to buy it

happy holidays 

You’re so cynical, they said they’ve been oversubscribed! 😂

Seriously folks think carefully on this before pulling the trigger, this could one could end in tears, just too many of these for the price point and quality. 

Adding my few cents to the debate:

1. If you applied because you wanted to get a hand-finished Hirst on paper and you selected 3 designs that resonate with you, then 25k is a very reasonable price for the opportunity and its a great release from Hirst. These are not horribly over-subscribed and I think many got offered one out of the 3 designs they selected, so we can complain about it, but the edition size and pricing were set just right for a good experience where almost everyone gets their preferred pieces.

2. If you signed up hoping to win a fee 10000$ and re-sell the piece (which is totally fair game!) then this is probably not the piece to buy

For everyone in category #1, of course, there is an uncertainty as to what these would be worth in a year or two if you need to sell, but that applies equally to any alternative art you can buy (e.g. Banksy print) given current market conditions. I think there is a good chance these will be buyable at some point in future below release cost, but given how many "ugly" ones there are in the edition I am not sure the return on saving a few grand is really that attractive compared to having the ability to choose a design. That being said, if you exclude prints and currencies and look at what art you can actually buy at auction/gallery for 25k$ from Hirst then you can also draw some conclusions.

Despite the fact I own a few Hirst originals and prints I hope this release is a disaster, Heni and Hirst have been mugging off collectors for years now, gradually taking the piss more and more.

Some of the prints have been offensively bad, a never ending conveyor belt of timed releases solely designed to put cash in their pockets with little to no regard for his collectors. The Veils release pushed the envelope in terms of pricing and volume but that was a different world and they only just pulled that off.

To think they can move 900 of these for between $25,000-45,000 is a joke, most of these are utter garbage and you can see someone knocked them up in 10 mins in some factory of assistants setup for mass production. These are not like the giant canvases which clearly time is spent making them decent, they're super lazy, I'd say the shiny Virtues are preferable to most of these. Maybe 1-2 years ago people would have ignored the quality and just thrown money at anything with his signature but times have changed, prices and demand have fallen off a cliff and anyone buying wants quality and value in equal measure, two metrics this release is completely lacking in.

Reading the email above it's patently obvious that collector after collector who applied and been offered are knocking these back and Heni are cynical enough to keep other collectors in reserve by pretending they are still managing applications which closed weeks back. Basically if in a few weeks when you get offered one don't be surprised if it's been knocked back by 3 or 4 other buyers.

Heni will of course make out that the drop was great success whilst quietly locking hundreds of these in a vault (like so much of Hirst's catalogue) never to be seen again. The poor collectors who end up buying will be left holding the bag and have to get used to the fact that these will probably sell for considerably less than cost in the not too distant future, which is actually fairly common for many Hirst primary sales (anyone who was around in 2008 and bought works then is still under water 15 years later).

Basically Hirst and Heni are greedy c**t and it's about time their little ponzi scheme came to an end.

I would rather drop $20k on an OG elsewhere. Frame and hang it. Spend the other $5k on a fine spread of food, booze and art supplies to host a painting party for my friends and family where we use Heni- Hirst’s Cherry Blossoms as a muse. Guaranteed to get more out of it.

Haha surly heni will have something to say about that!

I actually really like them and think £25k for an original is a fair price.

I'd frame, hang and enjoy.

I still think irregardless of numbers, these will be a sound investment over time.

Lets face it - if I could, I'd also keep 'milking the cow' for as long as I could - we all would.

DH gets a lot of heat on here, but he's unapologetically, audacious and innovative at the same time - the Currency an edition of 10,000 was a master stroke of genius IMO.

It's ok. There are plenty of Hirsts in the sea.

Have we reached a consensus on this release? To buy or not buy?

Yep, my small one looking pretty terrible at the framers.

I have spent the last few nights worrying about what to do if works in this series sell on the secondary market for or below cost. People who come round and see it on my wall will surely think: "that guy has a painting worth only £20k which he must have paid £23k upwards for". It's unthinkable. It's made worse knowing that my children wouldn't forgive me if they ever had to inherit an original painting which they discovered, in the first few years I owned it, couldn't achieve the same resale multiple as a Kaws vinyl figure might have done in the late 2010s. Must buy better next time.