A record-breaking auction

British artist Damien Hirst has attained a record sum of 145 million euros at a direct auction of his works at Southeby's in London. La Repubblica newspaper looks at the varying reactions to his artwork: "Damien Hirst is the most provocative and controversial artist of all time. His decision to sidestep the two famous galleries that have sold his work in recent years was a gesture of defiance. Now he has won the fight and come out all the richer. ... Critics have always been in two minds [about his work]. The advertising expert and art collector Charles Saatchi, who discovered Hirst and was the first to buy his works, sees in them ... an astute and modern reflection on death. Others, including art critic Robert Hughes, stress that the works are not even his, but those of his 200 assistants. Whatever one thinks, he is venerated by the elite collectors' market. The VIPs came armed with bidding signs. There were Russians, Arabs, Indians, Chinese, English and Americans. Stock market crash? Global recession? The collapse of one bank after the next? The only concern of those in the closely-cramped room on Bond Street was to outbid their neighbours."

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