The art world is buzzing with the release of UK artist Damien Hirst's latest work - a platinum cast human skull with 8,601 diamonds selling at over $100 million dollars. Who is Damien Hirst and how did he become the world's most valued living artist? "I just want to celebrate life by saying to hell with death. What better way of saying that than by taking the ultimate symbol of death and covering it in the ultimate symbol of luxury, desire and decadence? The only part of the original skull that will remain will be the teeth. You need that grotesque element for it to work as a piece of art. God is in the details and all that," the Guardian quotes the artist as saying.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/may/21/arts.artsnews

"Death is a central theme in Hirst's works. He became famous for a series in which dead animals (including a shark, a sheep and a cow) are preserved—sometimes having been dissected—in formaldehyde. The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, a 14-foot (4.3 m) tiger shark immersed in formaldehyde in a vitrine became the iconic work of British art in the 1990s, and the symbol of Britart worldwide. Its sale in 2004 made him the world's second most expensive living artist after Jasper Johns."

"In June 2007, Hirst overtook Jasper Johns when his Lullaby Spring sold for £9.65 million at Sotheby's in London. On 30 August 2007, Hirst outdid his previous sale of Lullaby Spring with For The Love of God which sold for £50 million to an unknown investment group. He is also known for 'spin paintings,' made on a spinning circular surface, and 'spot paintings,' which are rows of randomly-coloured circles."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damien_Hirst

At the opening of the gallery show where the diamond skull was first exhibited, the Guardian quotes the artists reaction as this: "I was worried it might look like a skull ring - spend all that money and you just end up with a disco ball, shock horror."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/artblog/2007/jun/01/hirstsskullma...

The verdict - only time will tell.