Damien Hirst: The Currency

Hirst's latest project challenges art collectors to decide between NFTs and physical artworks, with surprising results

For the conceptual project The Currency, British artist Damien Hirst (born 1965) created 10,000 NFTs corresponding to 10,000 of his original artworks: painted with his signature enamel dots and titled with his favorite song lyrics. During a year-long period, buyers could purchase a piece for $2,000, and were then given the choice to either keep the NFT or exchange it for the physical artwork. At the end of the year, 5,149 collectors decided to keep the physical artworks, and 4,851 the NFTs. Hirst then publicly destroyed the rejected pieces by burning them in a furnace. Published on the conclusion of the series, The Currency book features 332 of the 10,000 artworks as well as installation shots of the final exhibition, prefaced with a conversation between Hirst and British actor and broadcaster Stephen Fry.