Look in all those places Sammyman. Only you know what you like.

Other Criteria is the primary source for Damien's works...so if someone else is selling something they still have in stock...they will have to sell it for less...otherwise you would just go to Other Criteria.

No one will be able to sell something Other Criteria are selling for more.

Not sure if that makes sense.

Basically - no they won't be the cheapest, but it gives you total piece of mind, and it will not be that much more expensive.

Lost me there, Richard..

Other Criteria sell on a sliding scale increasing as the edition sells so if you see something 'new' you like, all the better.
Some auctions had some low pricing early on this year but the work in the Philips sale 26/9 (valium & opium spots) went around 7K. All according what you like and can afford, best of luck.

Id agree with going to other criteria. There are many very high end fakes out there. "piece of mind" has a premium. As with the sliding scale, i think it sucks, but its not going to change. Your best bet is to buy from other criteria early on, when a print is released. If you want a earlier classic like LSD, etc, then I would go with an auction house.

If im not mistaken, other criteria wont even authenticate a piece unless you buy it from them. THE FAKES ARE THAT GOOD!

Best of luck.

I disagree completely. Other criteria are wildly over priced when it comes to New editions. For instance, Paragon Press who also publish his prints, and have published him since the 90's represent much better value than the editions from other Criteria.

You can pick up large sized butterfly etchings at auction for about £5,000, for a print 7 times larger than the OC prints they are the only way to go.

That said I would always go to auction. And I would never, ever buy a valium/LSD or any other Eyestorm published print. The Lamda prints he made are the lowest quality and represent by far the worst value for money out there. They were extremely cheaply made, and were faked in huge numbers - never ever buy one you will regret it. If you want spots, you can buy an aquatint from an edition of under 50 for about £5000 at auction, these are and always will be much more desirebable than the dreadful Lamdas that eyestorm put out. Again produced by Paragon, there are about 20 designs out there, I bought a decent sized one for a client a few months ago for £4,000 + premium, though I expect you'll need an extra grand or so now that the market has picked up a little.

However the best in my opinion would be any plate from the Last Supper portfolio. They are his first series of published graphics (also done with Charles Booth-Clibborn at Paragon Press), very large and stunningly made. At auction expect to pay between 2,000-4,000 for one, an absolute bargain in my opinion (a set of 13 recently made £50,000) , and the only Hirst prints I would ever choose to own (and I do).

If you seriously want some help PM me as I can point you in the right direction so you wont get ripped off.

Out of interest Achtung, why did you buy from OC over Paragon? It just makes no sense to buy from them, unless you're an outrageously wealthy Russian or Arab Sheik who lights his cigars with £50 notes and bathes in a bathroom made of gold

incidentally, what are the original prices like / were like for the Paragon chemical dots series ?

Prices, depend on the size, but you're looking at between £3,000 and 12,000 at auction for the older editions by Paragon. Quality is by far the best of any of his prints. Published price for most is from about £8,000, rising to £20,000. So many dealers bought quantity that they have been dumping them pretty heavily at auction, so you can get real bargains if you look at the sales. Best venues in London - Bonham's, Bloomsbury Auctions and Christie's South Kensington. With the exception of CSK Bonham's and Bloomsbury have the lowest buyers premiums, and as they offer mixed artist 20th Century Print sales you tend to get a good selection of works in each sale. I know for a fac that both have Hirst etchings in their December sales.

It's these: 30 different Skull foil block prints
Published in association witn Paul Stolper (very nice man)



more here £3450 a pop edition of 15 each

www.othercriteria.com/browse/all/all/thedead/

but there are 15 of each of the 30 - 450 x £3450
someone is going to coin it in when these sell out....

not for me even at 1/2 the price

Im sure they look different in real ife as they are foil print?

on a sarcastic note... commission cartrain.

but said it was all about mass marketing Hirst
You could say that about the OC spot prints as well. You could also complain about the quality of some Banksy prints, but it's the concept, history and image that drive the price up. And of course "serious collectors" aren't going to care about a 5k print, they're buying the overpriced etchings and canvases. The etchings to me are just an excuse to have something to sell to the mid-tier market, it's all marketing too, I just don't see the value difference being tens of thousands even if they are etchings, and I am fond of that technique.

And for what it's worth, I owned an Opium previously and personally I think it looked outstanding on the wall, quality was better than a number of digital prints I've seen come from famous photographers.

Well we obviously have a different perspective here about the eyestorm prints, but it's not safe to assume I don't value the process of etching. In fact it is my favorite printmaking technique. But considering the etchings can retail for about 30-50k usd I very much think they are not worth it. They're for people who think they're too rich to own an Opium or LSD.

My point that I briefly mentioned is that for this concept, of recreating from his minds eye what he thinks LSD would look like under a microscope, I think the precision and science behind using a contemporary digital technique is a perfect complement. A handmade etching of circles, I don't see the connection.

I think you can get amazing line work from etchings, but more suited to artistic images. The etchings by Barry Mcgee and the Exquisite Corpse prints some may have seen at PdP recently are outstanding. I would never want to see those images as lambda print editions. But for spot prints I think photographic printing process is perfect.

But I do generally agree with your sentiment on digital printing and am dismayed at the amount of Epson prints being produced today.