Damien Hirst’s reconstructions had a precedent in Carl Andre’s bricks

The American minimalist artist Carl Andre (centre) with his artwork Equivalent VIII, made from 120 fire bricks, at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1978. Photograph: Chris Morphet/Getty Images

I am no great fan of Damien Hirst’s work, but there is precedent in the matter of making substitutions in the later construction of artworks (Damien Hirst formaldehyde animal works dated to 1990s were made in 2017, 19 March). When the Tate Gallery acquired Carl Andre’s Equivalent VIII in 1972, the tabloid press made a huge fuss about spending public money on “a pile of bricks” – and became further incensed when it transpired that they were not even the “original” bricks, just similar firebricks that Andre had gone out and bought.
Francis Blake
London

• As a primary teacher in 1993, I had pupils planting trees near the school. We “grew some more in ’94” and I look forward to seeing how many “are alive in ’25” (Letters, 19 March). Fortunately they were planted away from the council vandals and should outlive me.
Les Forester
Greetland, West Yorkshire