ART RESTORATION:

A Chemical Perspective – A Replacement Prospect…

Charles Saatchi, who in recent years has been selling off works by the Young British Artists that he collected so avidly in the 90s, in selling on Damien Hirst’s ‘The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living’ two years ago to the billionaire Steven A. Cohen, has opened a window for Hirst to restore or rather, replace what remains of the decaying Tiger Shark he chucked, inadequately-preserved, in a tank of formaldehyde back in 1991.

By the time Mr. Cohen had forked out $8 million for the thing, desperate attempts by the Saatchi Gallery to preserve the work had left little but the skin of the fish stretched over a fibre-glass frame… That is.., until now; for it seems the artist has had a replacement shark waiting in cold storage for the day he could get his hands on his most famous piece of work again..!

When he learned of Mr. Cohen’s plans to buy the 22-ton work, he volunteered to replace the shark, adding that he frequently works on things after a collector has them. The artist said. “I recently called a collector who owns a fly painting because I didn’t like the way it looked, so I changed it slightly.’’

This raises a rather interesting question regarding ‘The Physical Impossibility…’ however, as to whether the ‘restored’ piece, as a ‘work of art’, is a copy or not..? And, what are they going to do with the ‘original’? Kind of makes a nonsense out of the idea of art works as icons etc! And, let’s hope Mr. Hirst gets it right this time, for I’m sure he doesn’t have any more sitting in the freezer, and once he’s popped his clogs - what then..?

Swimming With Famous Dead Sharks - Related Story here - The New York Times