Your Guide to the Damien Hirst-Gagosian Gallery Split
The Financial Times reported this week that the world's richest artist is ending his partnership with one of the world's richest galleries. As with all Rich People Scandals, it's got everything your heart could desire: mass butterfly graves, lawsuits from British celebrities and Floridian nonagenarian, and snide NYT profiles about Hirst's diminishing value. Here's a look at the "divorce that has rocked the art world" by the numbers.
30%: drop in resale value of Hirst's work since 2005, according to Artnet
£215 million: Hirst's current estimated wealth
$925 million: Gagosian's current estimated wealth
£50 million: purchase price of For the Love of God, his most expensive work to date
9000: number of butterflies that have died by his hand
Over 500: Number of Hirst's works that have not sold since being made available for purchase in 2009
12: Number of art galleries owned by Larry Gagosian
3: Number of high-profile artists who have broken with Gagosian in the last two weeks (Yayoi Kusama has also announced she is leaving; Jeff Koons has plans for a spring exhibition with one of Gagosian's rivals in New York)
2: Larry Gagosian's ranking on ArtReview's 2012 Power 100
41: Damien Hirst's ranking
17: age of the Hirst-Gagosian partnership
100: Hirst pieces owned by the "mega-collector" Mugrabi family
1: Hirst pieces exhibited by Burger King this year
1: Number of lawsuits between the Mugrabis and a relative of Winston Churchill
2: Lawsuits currently pending against Gagosian (charges include fraud and breach of fiduciary duty)