Diamond Damien’s Share in $100-Million Skull Is Reportedly 24 Percent

“The $12 Million Stuffed Shark” a book to be published this month by Aurum Press, reportedly asserts that Damien Hirst‘s share in the diamond skull, said to have been acquired for $100 million by an investment syndicate, was 24 percent.
Andrew Johnson of the London Independent reports:
Don Thompson, an economist, writes in his book…that Hirst retained a 24 per cent stake. Until now it had not been revealed how much of a stake Hirst had kept. It is widely believed that the other members of the consortium that bought the work, which gave Hirst the status of most expensive living artist, include his close associates….Damien Hirst’s management company did not respond to requests [by the Independent] for a comment.
Here’s the description of the forthcoming book on the publisher’s website:
Don Thompson talks to auction houses, dealers, and collectors to find out the source of [British collector] Charles Saatchi’s Midas touch, and how far a gallery like White Cube has contributed to Damien Hirst becoming the highest-earning artist in the world. He unravels the Byzantine sale procedures by which the top auction houses maintain both premium prices for what they sell and their own pre-eminence, but also shows us a market whose most spectacular excesses are driven just as often by far simpler human urges like lust and self-aggrandizement.
Speaking of which, the skull (“For the Love of God”) is expected to leer at wealthy Russian collectors, Mar. 28 to May 18, when it is scheduled to glitter at the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.