Diamond Skulls: Bling and the Art World

Although high rollers and high artists have been rather conspicuous bedfellows for some time now, after last year’s absurdly lucrative auctioning seasons the art world seems poised to generate an unprecedented amount of cash in 2007. The British artist Damien Hirst, ever at the vanguard of the international art scene, has clearly grasped this and jumped wholeheartedly on the bandwagon–– he has created, for an estimated 20 million dollars, a diamond-encrusted skull.

The bejewelled death’s head, which was financed entirely by Hirst, is estimated to go to auction at around 100 million dollars after it leaves its current residence at the White Cube Gallery in London, which will make it the priciest piece of contemporary art ever sold. All of this following a year of record sales for post-war art.

We can only hope somebody calls Jay-Z in time.