Colin Gleadell provides the backstory to Damien Hirst’s My Way which sold at Christie’s near the low estimate for a premium total of £865,875:
Observers may think prices for contemporary art are insane, but for Damien Hirst they are adjusting – downwards. A 23-year-old medicine cabinet named after the Sex Pistols’ rendition of the Sinatra classic My Way was bought from Charles Saatchi in 1996 for about £45,000 for insurance boss Robert Hiscox, who could not hang it in his office because health and safety officials said it had to have a lock on it. Hiscox sold it in 1998 for £144,000 to an American, who sold it 18 months later for more than £200,000. However, last year it was offered with a £1.2 million estimate and was unsold. Christie’s has reduced its estimate this week to £700,000.
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