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Altar - Signed Print by Damien Hirst 2009 - MyArtBroker

Altar
Signed Print

Damien Hirst

£13,500-£21,000Value Indicator

$27,000-$40,000 Value Indicator

$24,000-$40,000 Value Indicator

¥120,000-¥190,000 Value Indicator

16,000-25,000 Value Indicator

$130,000-$210,000 Value Indicator

¥2,590,000-¥4,030,000 Value Indicator

$17,000-$26,000 Value Indicator

10% AAGR

AAGR (5 years) This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.

There aren't enough data points on this work for a comprehensive result. Please speak to a specialist by making an enquiry.

Medium: Etching

Edition size: 59

Year: 2009

Size: H 130cm x W 127cm

Signed: Yes

Format: Signed Print

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The value of Damien Hirst's Altar (signed) is estimated to be worth between £13,500 and £21,000. This etching, created in 2009, has been sold twice since its entry to the market on 28th September 2016. There have been no sales in the last 12 months and no hammer price data available for the last five years. The edition size of this artwork is limited to 59.

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Auction Results

Auction DateAuction HouseLocation
Hammer Price
Return to Seller
Buyer Paid
November 2017Sotheby's Dubai United Arab Emirates
September 2016Sotheby's Online United Kingdom

Meaning & Analysis

The Sanctum series is indicative of Hirst’s obsession with butterflies and every print uses hundreds of butterfly wings to form its beautiful pattern. For Hirst, the butterfly is a ‘universal trigger’ that many people share in finding attractive and joyous. Recalling someone once saying to him: “Butterflies are beautiful, but it’s a shame they have disgusting hairy bodies in the middle,” Hirst in works like this chose only to display the dazzling wings in Altar.

Reminiscent of stained glass windows in Gothic architecture and the circular patterns of mandalas, Altar is representative of Hirst’s broad range of artistic inspiration. The use of the butterfly differs from earlier iterations of the motif in installations such as In and Out of Love from 1991. Using only the butterfly wings, Hirst removes the idealised image of the butterfly from the real insect, notably arranging the wings into an aesthetic composition.

  • Damien Hirst, born in Bristol in 1965, is often hailed the enfant terrible of the contemporary art world. His provocative works challenge conventions and his conceptual brilliance spans installations, paintings, and sculptures, often exploring themes of mortality and the human experience. As a leading figure of the Young British Artists (YBA) movement in the late '80s, Hirst's work has dominated the British art scene for decades and has become renowned for being laced with controversy, thus shaping the dialogue of modern art.