Contemporary art prices

Damien Hirst's art has performed poorly since a big sale in 2008

IN 2008 just over $270m-worth of art by Damien Hirst was sold at auction, a world record for a living artist. By 2009 Mr Hirst’s annual auction sales had shrunk by 93%—to $19m—and the 2010 total is likely to be even lower. The collapse in the Hirst market can partly be ascribed to the recession. But more important are the lingering effects of a two-day auction of new work by Mr Hirst that Sotheby’s launched in London on September 15th 2008, the first session of which took place the very evening that Lehman Brothers went bankrupt. The average auction price for a Hirst work in 2008 was $831,000. So far in 2010 it is down to $136,000.