Damien Hirst painting fails to reach antiques valuation

A Damien Hirst painting has failed to fetch its antiques valuation, but still sold for more than £2 million.

The work of art - titled I Am Become Death, Shatterer Of Worlds - is his largest piece using butterfly wings, but did not achieve its price guide of between £2.5 million and £3.5 million.

The item - previously owned by the Gagosian Gallery in London - gets its moniker from the words of J Robert Oppenheimer following the detonation of the first atomic bomb.

It went under the hammer at the Christie's post-war and contemporary art sale in London.

And it is not the first time Hirst's works have fetched a few pounds after he sold a complete show for £111 million at auction through Sotheby's in 1998.

Moreover, another painting that could be sold for millions is a horse piece by artist George Stubbs, which has an antiques valuation of between £10 million and £15 million on it.

Posted by Keith Leicester