Damien Hirst Ups His Chances With Art Lottery

Times are tough for artists used to selling multi-million dollar works, but it seems they’re tougher than we thought. Not only is artist Damien Hirst back to designing album covers for The Hours, he’s also using a sweepstakes to offload the $186,000 original painting, plus some prints as well. Of course, the former skull-bedazzler does own the label putting out the band’s new album, so it’s not as though he’s giving away the work for nothing, he’s just trading it for publicity the same way creative trailblazers like Burger King and Kia would.

Art Star Finds New Sources of Income

With the price of art falling hard, 35% percent in the first quarter of 2009, even art world heavyweights are looking for new sources of income. Nobody is buying multi-million dollar formaldehyde-soaked sharks or diamond-studded skulls any more, so Damien Hirst is back designing album art for The Hours, along with skateboard decks for Supreme, a book cover for Penguin Classic, and blue jeans for Levi’s. This of course on top of that £200 he managed to squeeze out of a teenage collage artist by threatening to sue for copyright infringement.