Hirst could sell for £1m 'art boom' prices

Damien Hirst artworks are being valued at prices not seen since the peak of the art boom, according to Bloomberg.

The good news comes a year after Hirst's £111.5m record breaking Beautiful Inside My Head Forever art sale.

Estimated prices for his art include £450,000-650,000 for Retribution, Hirst's 2006 pale blue and white butterfly painting.

Meanwhile, his painting of two skulls, Death Shmeth!, is estimated at £220,000-280,000.

Buyers at Beautiful Inside My Head Forever included Hirst's dealers White Cube and the Gagosian Gallery.

They famously bid huge amounts for Hirst's art, just hours after the collapse of Lehman Brothers heralded the recession.

The new prices estimates, reported by Bloomberg, are good news for art collectors and investors.

They signal that confidence is returning to the art market after contemporary art prices dropped by 30-50% this year.

"Just as happened with the 'Pharmacy' sale in 2004, a large volume of sales flattened and in some cases lowered prices for Hirst," Oliver Barker, Sotheby's London-based international senior specialist told Bloomberg.

"[But] since then the values of Damien's work and the majority of artists have had to be reassessed," he added.

"We're now in a pattern of consolidation and rebuilding confidence - there is a market for him."

The works will auction at Sotheby's October 16 sale of contemporary art in London during the week of the Frieze Art Fair.

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