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Damien Hirst arrives in Hong Kong to present a diamond studded baby skull at the newly opened Gagosian Gallery

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The infant, believed to have been aged around 40 weeks, has been dead a long time. The skull itself was part of a nineteenth century pathology collection owned by the artist and still sits in his studio.

Last weekend saw the opening of the Gagosian Gallery in Peddar Building, whose unveiling was highlighted with an exhibition from Damien Hirst, Forgotten Promises. It was the first time the work of this controversial creator has exhibited in Asia, and a good indicator that the world's art scene is shifting east, with Hong Kong establishing itself as the leading Asian capital for art.

In 2007, Damien Hirst reaped the title of the most expensive artwork sold by a living artist when his artwork of a studded diamond skull, For the Love of Art and Money, sold for US$79 million. And in local news, last year his formaldehyde piece of a dove, The Inescapable Truth 2005, was sold at ArtHK 2010 to an anonymous Taiwanese businessman.

See our video coverage of ArtHK 2010 here

This year, Hirst continues to submit controversial pieces, as he presented a piece entitled For Heaven's Sake in the Gagosian Gallery in Hong Kong. The work is a platinum cast of a human baby skull with more than 16,000 diamonds embedded in it. It is the first time the work has gone on display anywhere.

"Diamonds are about perfection and clarity and wealth and sex and death and immortality," Hirst said in Hong Kong, as he presents the Forgotten Promises exhibition. "They are a symbol of everything that's eternal, but then they have a dark side as well."

Alongside, other Hirst pieces include a naked man cast in gold who has apparently flayed himself with surgical shears and a scalpel, his skin draped over an arm. A well-placed fig leaf protects his modesty. Another potentially controversial piece on display is a 22 carat gold model of a baby's skeleton, with the addition of angel wings.

Precisely detailed oil paintings of butterflies, a favoured symbol for the artist which he says represent the beauty and fragility of life, adorn the gallery's walls. The butterfly paintings are based on photographs taken from science collections and were painted by the artist's staff, not Hirst himself. There are 32 exhibits in the show and all are for sale, although prices are not being publicly revealed.

Some of those at the Hong Kong show have already been sold, with For Heaven's Sake being put on reserve for an undisclosed sum.

 

Read more about record-breaking sales in Hong Kong with our blogger Francois Curiel here

 

"Damien sees the baby's skull as a very positive work," Jude Tyrrell, director of Hirst's company Science Ltd, told Asia Tatler. "Skulls have appeared as a motif in works of art for thousands of years. There's nothing sinister about it."

So will Hong Kong have an appetite for Hirst's work, and will the extortionate price tag be justified in the Asian Market? Keeping in mind that the highest price paid for a piece in Hong Kong was over $30 million in 2010 for a Qianlong period vase. It was bought by collector Dr. Alice Cheng, who paid more than five times the top estimate, helping push Sotheby's autumn sale total to a record US$396 million. The likely answer is "yes".

 

Learn more about the local art scene from our blogger Nicole Schoeni her