If one artist embodies the push-and-pull of today’s art economy, it’s Damien Hirst. In 2025, his market is a tale of two tempos: buoyant activity and price discovery in editions and mid-price works, alongside a measured recalibration at the very top end. Understanding both sides is essential for collectors deciding where—and how—to participate.
1) The macro backdrop: thinner trophies, thicker middle
The post-pandemic froth has settled across the art market. By Artnet’s count, global fine-art auction sales fell 27.3% in 2024 to $10.2 billion, a cool-down that set the tone for 2025 consignments and estimates. The oxygen is thinner at the top; liquidity and momentum have shifted toward lower price bands and day sales.
Hiscox’s Artist Top 100 (2025) underlines the same point for post-2000 art: lots under $50,000 reached a record 4,684 in 2024 (up 20% year-over-year), with total value at this level rising 5% to $59 million—even as >$1m lots fell sharply. Tellingly, Damien Hirst is specifically named among the most active artists under $50,000, a sign that entry- to mid-level demand for his work remains broad.
2) Where Hirst sits in the 2025 rankings
On raw auction value for 2024, Hirst climbed to #12 in the Hiscox Top 100, with $9.48 million in sales value (up from #16 the prior year). That keeps him in the market’s first tier by transaction volume and visibility, even if the very highest prices are less frequent than a decade ago.
Institutionally, his visibility is high in 2025: Albertina Modern, Vienna is hosting Drawings (May 7–October 12, 2025), the first museum survey of Hirst’s drawings, which tracks the artist’s working processes from the 1980s onward. This kind of programming doesn’t just nurture scholarship; it steadies confidence around long-term demand.
3) 2025 auction pulse: prints, HENI editions, and price signals
A clean snapshot arrived on June 5, 2025, when Phillips staged a stand-alone Hirst auction in London. The sale totaled £487,553 ($661,609) and met estimates. The lead lot was a complete set of The Virtues (2021), which brought $111,800; single sheets of The Virtues traded around £17,000–£18,000, and Paper Blossoms material reached £50,800. The pattern is consistent with a broader 2024–2025 print boom: concentrated competition for complete sets and A-grade motifs, with single sheets and later releases forming a liquid “trading band.”
Meanwhile, earlier HENI releases—The Empresses among them—show wider dispersion. In June, a set labeled The Empresses (H10) hammered at £6,350 at Phillips; other recent results have been lower, underscoring how edition size, condition, and completeness (full set vs. single) matter enormously to outcomes.
4) Primary market and programming
Hirst’s studio-gallery ecosystem keeps the primary pipeline active. The 2023 series Where the Land Meets the Sea (co-presented with Phillips and supported by Gagosian and White Cube) advanced his painterly project from Cherry Blossoms into stormy greyscale seas and gestural abstractions—work that has begun to circulate at auction in 2024–2025, feeding price discovery for newer bodies beyond the canonical Natural History, Spots, and Kaleidoscopes.
Programming at Newport Street Gallery—from 2024’s Wes Lang: The Black Paintings to 2025’s Raging Planet group show—keeps the brand vivid for London audiences and signals continued investment in institutional-style presentation. While not directly price-setting, this curatorial cadence helps sustain long-run demand for Hirst’s own work by keeping him embedded in a living cultural context.
5) NFTs and The Currency—a 2025 check-in
Hirst’s 2021 experiment, The Currency—10,000 NFTs paired with unique dot works on paper—remains an active niche market. July 2025 saw 41 sales totaling 40 ETH (~$142k), with the median price rising to 1.38 ETH by month-end; the report also notes a median +17% seller return across July’s repeat sales (with wide variation). While a far cry from peak 2021 crypto exuberance, these data confirm durable collector engagement for a Hirst project that explicitly interrogates value, authenticity, and choice (NFT vs. paper burn).
6) What’s working now: a collector’s map by price band
Under $25k–$50k (high-liquidity lane).
Hiscox highlights Hirst as a leading name in the sub-$50k segment, where high-quality prints and small works on paper offer consistent turnover. Complete sets (The Virtues), strong single images (Butterflies, Spots, Mickey/Minnie collaborations), and popular 2020s series (Paper Blossoms, Colour Space, Veils) have been particularly lively in 2024–2025, with Phillips’ June sale supplying fresh comps. Expect efficient price discovery and relatively short resale timelines here—provided condition and provenance are solid.
$50k–$300k (selective but active).
Unique works on paper, smaller paintings from series with deep exhibition histories, and early 2000s material can trade well when estimates align with recent comps. Buyers should triangulate auction data with primary-market positioning—newer series may be visible in shows but still establishing resale benchmarks, while classic motifs (Kaleidoscope butterflies, standout Spots) continue to command attention when rarity and quality align.
$300k+ (curated conviction).
Top-tier Natural History works and exceptional early icons still have an audience, but selectivity is acute, and sellers need patience and realistic reserves. The 2025 Oranges and Lemons result illustrates how prices for “known” categories can reset relative to late-2000s peaks. Today’s buyers prioritize condition, freshness to market, and exhibition/ publication history over sheer scale or shock value.
7) Risks, catalysts, and how to buy smart in 2025
Mind the edition dynamics. Sets vs. singles, paper vs. aluminum-mounted formats (Colour Space), and release channels (HENI vs. traditional publishers) meaningfully affect price. The June Phillips sale shows premiums for complete sets and top-tier motifs, while later or over-supplied images can lag.
Track institutional signals. The Albertina Modern show matters: fresh scholarship and museum-level visibility typically support confidence, even if pricing moves with a lag. Pair museum programming with gallery support (Gagosian/White Cube) to judge whether a series is still in primary build-out—or already a secondary-market staple.
Use current comps, not memory. The market’s center of gravity has moved since 2021—and certainly since 2007. Lean on 2024–2025 comps, not decade-old records, when setting expectations. Artnet’s 2025 outlook and Hiscox’s data both confirm the shift from trophy-led hype to breadth-led stability.
For The Currency, follow the monthly tapes. HENI’s transparent reports (volumes, medians, and even wallet flows) are unusually detailed for any art asset. If you collect in this lane, treat it like a micro-market with its own volatility, and size positions accordingly.
Bottom line
The Hirst market in 2025 is neither boom nor bust—it’s normalized. Depth lives in the editions and mid-price segments, where recognizable images and complete sets change hands briskly; at the summit, prices are selective and benchmark-driven. Institutional programming (Vienna) and a steady cadence of releases keep the narrative fresh, while transparent data around both auctions and The Currency let collectors make decisions with unusual clarity. For buyers, this is a year to be specific: pick the right image in the right format, prize completeness and condition, and value series with proven exhibition histories. For sellers, match asking levels to the 2024–2025 comp tape, and let the market’s renewed discipline work in your favor.
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