Damien Hirst's gamble has paid off, sighs Mrs. M.  His pickled shark, The Kingdom, exceeded all expectations with a hammer price of £8.5, £2.5 above Sotheby's highest estimate.  It seems hedge fund managers can't get enough pickled shark.  Monday night's sale achieved £70m. Sotheby's was expecting £65m.  And so, pretentious silly art goes on selling to silly high rollers.

£70m is not bad for two years work.  And all this on the day that a major US bank, Lehman Brothers, went belly up, and the world tumbled into economic chaos. Still there's money enough out there to pay £8m for a shark in formaldehyde. It's a wonder the bidders weren't embarrassed to be throwing money away on a day like September 15, '08, when most people were plunged into gloom and panic because of the banking crisis, worried about their life savings, large or small. Maybe that's why the bidding was by telephone. 

Hirst is the first major artist to sell at auction, cutting out the dealers. Apparently there were a lot of nervous, and jilted, dealers in the room watching the action. As the shark reached £8m, up went a collective gasp from the audience of hedge fund managers with trophy girl friends.  21,000 people tramped through Sotheby's in the days leading up to the sale to have a look. Sotheby's pocketed £60,000 in catalogues alone.

Oh, well, you can never be too thin, or have too much pickled shark, as they say.  I would have thought The Kingdom was so yesterday.  So‘been there, done it.'  Damien Hirst must be laughing all the way to the bank, ...the veritable Last Laugh.