Will everyone please stand up and boo Damien Hirst, who we now hear is a dollar billionaire, urges Mrs. M. Hirst, 43, is now the biggest dollar earner in the history of art and Britain's richest living artist.  We might ask if Hirst's greatest work of art is his bank balance?

Why is his silly £50m diamond encrusted skull now worth £150m?  It's said Hirst bought the skull himself to elevate its' value.  His new show features The Golden Calf, estimated at £8m-£12, which is a subtly mocking portrait of the billionaires who might buy it.  That at least seems to be a genuine statement about today's inflated contemporary art market.

Now he's going to pocket £65m by selling 220 new works at Sotheby's and by-passing the dealers who helped to put him on the map.  That's another entrepreneurial master stroke from the Prince of Greed.   New art is not sold in auctions.  The unspoken rule is that new works are sold by dealers, and ‘resold' in auctions, after a work is five years old or more.  Since it's founding in 1744, Sotheby's has not sold a new work by a living artist direct to the public.  The Hirst sale, Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, September 15, will be changing the rules.

Hirst's art is more about money than message.  I agree with eminent art critic Robert Hughes, who described Hirst's work as ‘absurd' and ‘tacky.'  Who wants all this gold- plated bling?  Truly all that glitters is not gold.  The big question is will these works hold their value? Let's hope not.   Say boo to soulless and decadent art.  Too bad the money men have a strangle hold on Art.