Why Damien Hirst's roadkill is worth more than yours

If you think that one inanimate shark is as good as another, your understanding of the art market is, as they say, dead in the water. Mr. Saunders's piece just didn't have the same quality or cache. (Although Mr. Saunders did claim his shark was more handsome.) Most important, it's not just about the work of art; rather, the value placed on a particular work derives from how it feels to own that art. Most art dealers know that art buying is all about what tier of buyers you aspire to join.

From The New York Sun's amusing review of Don Thompson's upcoming book, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art.

Thomson discusses the promotion of Mr. Saunders' stuffed shark by an artists' collective known as the Stuckists as part of their strategy to critique Hirst's "conceptual art". The Stuckists displayed Saunders' shark across town from Hirst's back in 2003, with a $1 million price tag:

stuffed shark
Eddie Saunders, 1989

The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living
Damien Hirst, 1991
Tiger shark, glass, steel, 5% formaldehyde solution, 213 x 518 x 213 cm
MoMA

Hirst's shark later sold for $8 million - despite the fact that it rotted from the inside out, fell apart, and needed to be replaced with a fresh shark. Even Hirst admitted he wasn't sure if the artwork was still the "original" piece post-shark-replacement. But responding to the criticism that pretty much anyone could have put a dead shark on display and called it art, Hirst said, 'But you didn't, did you?'

Controversy aside, the most artistically successful shark of all is clearly this one:

Art Craziest Nation: Damien Hirst's Shark Tank
John Cake and Darren Neave, 2005