Damien Hirst has started burning thousands of his paintings - as buyers wanted digital versions of the artwork instead of a physical piece. The artist is setting fire to thousands of his creations as part of a new exhibition.
The 57-year-old's latest project, called The Currency, involves him destroying a collection of his classic polka dot-style artworks in contained fires. It first began in July 2021 with 10,000 original pieces accompanied by NFTs - non-fungible tokens - and collectors given the option of keeping either the digital or the physical artwork.
More than half of the collectors, 5,149, decided to keep the physical artwork while 4,851 opted for the NFT. Over the course of the exhibition held at London's Newport Street Gallery, all of the 4,851 physical artworks will be burned at a specified time each day until the event ends on October 30.
