As Tate Modern receives droves of visitors to its Damien Hirst retrospective, the Occupy movement in London has labeled him a persona non grata in its Occupy Times of London paper, declaring him the artist who most defines the corrupt values of the financial world.
While up to this point bankers have been the target of the Occupy movement everywhere, The Occupy Times of London would like us to consider people in other fields like Mr. Hirst who, they believe, embody the same values:
“Sharks. Death. Love. God. Money. If Hirst is anything, he is the brash Goldman Sachs of the art world. He has a vast personal fortune of over £200m, accumulated through an alchemy that would leave even the most brash bankers in awe: stock medicine cabinets, spots of paint, flies, butterflies and severed cows heads transformed into pieces that sell for millions.”
Mr. Hirst’s sculpture For the Love of God, a human skull set with roughly $24 million worth of diamonds, was already the poster child for the Occupy Wall Street movement on this side of the pond back in October.
Thanks to The Art Newspaper for pointing out this article.
