Damien Hirst accused of backdating NFT project paintings

Last updated: May 24, 2024 at 4:10 p.m. EDT | 1 minute reading

English artist Damien Hirst is facing increased scrutiny this week following allegations that he backdated more than 1,000 artworks from his NFT project “The Currency”, the Guardian reported on Wednesday.

Damian Hirst under fire for NFT project following Exposé

The controversial artist, perhaps best known for his works depicting animals preserved in formaldehydeallegedly misrepresented the actual dates of approximately 10% of the 10,000 physical paintings in “The Monnaie,” all of which were a corresponding NFT.

Launched in 2021 and sold for $2,000, Hirst claimed that all physical paintings forming part of the work NFT projects have been completed by hand in 2016.

Sources who spoke to the Guardian claimed that in reality the dot paintings were mass-produced by almost a dozen artists in 2018 and 2019 in the UK on a “Henry Ford production line”.

“It was very, very tedious,” a source told the Guardian. “There were lots of sheets on these tables, and they were quite low so you had to bend down to do the spots. After a while, some people suffered from repetitive strain injuries.

Footage showing several paintings recorded from inside Hirst’s studio in 2019 and verified by media supports the allegations.

Hirst’s lawyers have not denied the allegations, saying the 2016 marker represents the conceptual date of Hirst’s “The Currency” rather than the physical production date of each painting.

Physical copies of Damien Hirst’s “The Currency” NFTs go up in smoke

Purchasers of “The Currency” were allowed to keep either the physical painting or its digital twin, but not both. In 2022, Hirst burned the physical versions of those who selected the NFT to effectively transfer the value of each painting into digital form.

“A lot of people think I burn millions of dollars on art, but that’s not the case.” Hirst told the BBC at the time. “I complete the transformation of these physical works into NFTs by burning the physical versions.”

Backdating, the process of label a work of art with an incorrect year indicating when it was created is widely frowned upon in the art world.

This is not the first time Hirst has been accused of falsely dating a work, with the Guardian publishing an article in March revealing that three of his formaldehyde sculptures from the 1990s were actually created in 2017.

If true, the allegations could damage Hirst’s already-scrutinized reputation, call into question the legitimacy of his work, and potentially reduce the value of his NFT project.

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