Damien Hirst The Virtues: A Complete Collector's Guide

Introduction: The Virtues as Moral Catalogue

Damien Hirst's The Virtues series represents one of the most sustained and deliberate engagements with moral philosophy in his career — a body of work that uses the visual language of his celebrated butterfly wing compositions to explore the conceptual territory of human aspiration. Produced under the H14 designation, the series comprises eight large-format screenprints, each titled after an abstract virtue: Realisation, Happiness, Tolerance, Wisdom, Reassurance, Resolution, Selflessness, and Knowledge. Together, they constitute something closer to a philosophical programme than a decorative project, inviting collectors and viewers to consider what it might mean to pursue the good life through the medium of some of the most formally accomplished prints Hirst has ever produced.

For collectors, The Virtues occupies a distinctive position within Hirst's output. Unlike the Spot Paintings — whose rigorous seriality has sometimes been compared to mechanical production — or the Natural History works, whose shock value has always been central to their market positioning, The Virtues operates in a register of genuine aspiration. These are works that want to be beautiful, and that use their beauty in the service of meaning. The butterfly wing compositions that form the visual basis of the series carry their own internal symbolism — transformation, transcendence, the brevity of beauty — and the virtue titles layer a second order of meaning onto that foundation. The result is a series of works that rewards sustained engagement and that holds its value partly because of the intellectual seriousness with which it approaches its subject matter.

This guide covers everything a collector needs to know about The Virtues: the series' origins and conceptual framework, the individual works, the technical specifications, authentication, market performance, and care. Whether you are considering your first acquisition from the series or completing a collection, the information here will help you understand what makes these works significant and how to approach them intelligently.

Wisdom (H14-4), from The Virtues series — Damien Hirst. Available at Guy Hepner, New York.

The Origins of The Virtues: Hirst's Moral Turn

To understand The Virtues, it helps to understand the arc of Hirst's career and the trajectory that brought him to this point. Hirst emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s as the defining figure of the Young British Artists movement — a generation that deliberately challenged the assumptions of the art establishment with work that was confrontational, conceptually rigorous, and frequently uncomfortable. The shark in formaldehyde (The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1991), the vitrines of dead animals, the medicine cabinets — these were works that used the aesthetics of the natural history museum and the hospital to confront viewers with mortality in its most literal forms.

Yet even within this early work, there were signs of a more contemplative sensibility at work. The Spot Paintings, begun in 1986 and continuing for decades, have been read as meditative objects — their rigorous seriality and their pure colour relationships inviting a kind of visual absorption that has more in common with Eastern spiritual practice than with the shock tactics of his Natural History works. The butterfly works, which began to emerge seriously in the 1990s, introduced a more explicitly symbolic register: butterflies as emblems of transformation, of the brevity of beauty, of metamorphosis and transcendence. The In and Out of Love installation of 1991 — with its live butterflies hatching and dying across a single exhibition — made the symbolism explicit.

The 2017 Venice exhibition Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable marked a significant shift in Hirst's public ambitions. The monumental installation — an imaginary museum collection recovered from a mythical shipwreck — was the most expensive art project ever self-funded by an artist, and whatever its critical reception, it demonstrated Hirst's determination to work at the scale of myth, of human civilisation, of collective memory and belief. The Virtues series, emerging in the years following Venice, represents a related ambition pursued through a more intimate medium: rather than monumental bronze sculptures and grand narrative, a series of works on paper that take the moral vocabulary of Western philosophy as their subject and that invite private contemplation rather than public spectacle.

The engagement with spiritual and religious themes that runs through The Virtues is not incidental. Hirst has spoken openly about his interest in Christian iconography and in the visual traditions of devotional art. The butterfly as a symbol of the soul's resurrection appears in Christian art from the early medieval period onwards; the mandala-like symmetry of the Kaleidoscope butterfly works has obvious resonances with the circular forms of Buddhist and Hindu spiritual imagery. The Virtues draws on this iconographic inheritance without making it programmatic: these are works that feel sacred without being doctrinally committed, that invoke the moral seriousness of religious art without requiring religious belief from their viewer.

Realisation (H14-1), from The Virtues series — Damien Hirst. Available at Guy Hepner, New York.

The Titles: Each Virtue Examined

The eight titles of The Virtues series — Realisation, Happiness, Tolerance, Wisdom, Reassurance, Resolution, Selflessness, Knowledge — form a moral vocabulary that draws on classical philosophy, Christian ethics, and contemporary psychological language simultaneously. Each title shapes the experience of its corresponding composition, directing the viewer towards a particular mode of engagement with the abstract butterfly wing imagery.

Realisation opens the series with one of its most philosophically loaded concepts. In the Buddhist tradition, realisation refers to direct insight into the nature of reality — the moment of awakening that transforms the practitioner's relationship to experience. In the Hegelian tradition, it describes the process by which an abstract concept becomes concrete and actual in the world. In everyday speech, it simply means becoming aware of something. The composition for Realisation tends towards cool, clarifying tones that embody this sense of clarity achieved — the moment when something that was obscure becomes visible.

Happiness invites the most ancient of philosophical debates. Aristotle's eudaimonia — typically translated as happiness but more accurately rendered as flourishing — was the telos of ethical life for the classical tradition: the state towards which all virtuous action aims. The Utilitarian tradition understood happiness as the maximisation of pleasure and the minimisation of pain. Contemporary psychology has returned to something closer to Aristotle, distinguishing between hedonic pleasure (the good feeling of the moment) and eudaimonic wellbeing (the deep satisfaction of a life lived well). Hirst's Happiness composition, with its warm, expansive colour relationships, suggests the latter more than the former.

Tolerance is perhaps the virtue most specific to the modern liberal tradition. In the context of increasingly fragmented societies and persistent cultural conflict, tolerance as an active commitment — rather than mere passive acceptance — has become one of the defining moral challenges of contemporary life. The composition for Tolerance tends towards a balance of contrasting elements held in careful equilibrium, as if embodying the effort required to maintain openness to difference.

Wisdom is the classical virtue of phronesis — practical wisdom, the ability to discern the right course of action in complex situations. It is distinguished from theoretical knowledge (which can be acquired through study) by its dependence on experience and judgement. The great wisdom traditions of both East and West emphasise that wisdom cannot simply be taught; it must be lived into. The composition for Wisdom is among the most complex and layered in the series, as if acknowledging the accumulated depth of the concept.

Reassurance introduces an emotional register that the classical virtue traditions might not have recognised as a virtue at all — it is more pastoral than philosophical, rooted in the therapeutic relationships of care and comfort. Yet its inclusion in The Virtues series speaks to Hirst's interest in the full range of what makes human life liveable, not merely what makes it excellent. The composition for Reassurance is among the warmer and more enveloping in the series.

Resolution carries a double meaning that the series exploits productively: it refers both to the quality of firm determination and to the achievement of clarity after a period of confusion or conflict — as when a musical dissonance resolves to a consonant chord. The composition for Resolution tends towards a sense of achieved order, of visual tension brought to rest.

Selflessness is the most morally demanding of the eight virtues — the quality of acting for others rather than oneself, of subordinating personal interest to the good of the whole. In the Buddhist tradition, it is closely related to the concept of anatman (no-self) — the recognition that the boundaries of the individual self are less fixed than we assume. The composition for Selflessness tends towards open, outward-reaching arrangements that embody this dissolution of the self's defences.

Knowledge closes the series by returning to an epistemological rather than purely ethical register. The virtue of knowledge — understood not merely as the accumulation of information but as the disciplined pursuit of truth and understanding — runs through every philosophical and spiritual tradition. Its placement as the final work in the series suggests that moral development culminates in a kind of knowing: a clearer apprehension of reality and of one's own place within it.

Happiness (H14-2), from The Virtues series — Damien Hirst. Available at Guy Hepner, New York.

Visual Language and Technique

The visual language of The Virtues is rooted in Hirst's long engagement with butterfly wing compositions — a practice that began seriously in the 1990s and that has generated some of his most formally accomplished and commercially successful works. The Kaleidoscope series, in which real butterfly wings are set into household gloss paint on canvas, established the basic visual grammar: symmetrical arrangements of wings whose patterns and colours combine to create mandala-like compositions of extraordinary optical complexity. The Virtues translates this visual vocabulary into the medium of the print, and in doing so achieves a precision and reproducibility that the unique Kaleidoscope canvases cannot offer.

Each work in the H14 series is produced as a screenprint — a technique that allows for the precise reproduction of fine detail, subtle colour gradations, and the complex layering of elements that characterises Hirst's butterfly compositions. Screenprinting involves pushing ink through a mesh screen onto the paper surface, with each colour requiring a separate screen and pass; the complexity of the resulting works means that a typical Hirst butterfly print may require dozens of passes to achieve its full visual effect. The technical standards of production at Other Criteria — the publishing operation that Hirst co-founded and that handles the majority of his print and edition production — are among the highest in contemporary fine art publishing.

What distinguishes The Virtues visually from other butterfly series is the specificity of the colour relationships chosen for each work. The Mantra series — which forms the backbone of Hirst's accessible print market — tends towards a more generalised visual impact: bold, saturated colours that read strongly from a distance. The Virtues works are more nuanced: the colour relationships are chosen not only for their visual appeal but for their emotional and conceptual resonance with the specific virtue each work addresses. Wisdom, for example, tends towards deeper, more complex tones that suggest accumulated depth; Happiness towards warmer, more expansive relationships that embody the emotional register of the concept.

The symmetry that characterises all of Hirst's butterfly compositions is particularly significant in The Virtues. Bilateral symmetry — the mirror-image structure that runs through almost all of these works — has deep roots in the visual traditions of sacred art: from the bilateral symmetry of religious figures in medieval altarpieces to the mandala forms of Buddhist and Hindu imagery. Symmetry implies order, balance, and the resolution of opposing forces — qualities that are not incidental to works whose titles invoke moral aspiration. The choice to build these moral compositions on a foundation of symmetry suggests that virtue itself has something to do with the achievement of balance: between self and other, between knowledge and action, between aspiration and acceptance.

Tolerance (H14-3), from The Virtues series — Damien Hirst. Available at Guy Hepner, New York.

The H6 Series: Mercy, Grace, Patience, Goodness, Truth

The H14 Virtues series does not exist in isolation within Hirst's output. The H6 series — comprising five works titled Mercy, Grace, Patience, Goodness, and Truth — shares the virtue-naming convention and the butterfly wing visual language of the H14 series, constituting a related but distinct body of work that most serious collectors of The Virtues will want to understand.

The H6 titles draw on a slightly different moral vocabulary from the H14 series. Where H14 tends towards the classical philosophical virtues (Wisdom, Knowledge) and the psychological virtues (Reassurance, Happiness), H6 is more deeply rooted in the Christian theological tradition. Mercy and Grace are central theological concepts in both Catholic and Protestant Christianity — Mercy as the quality of compassion that withholds deserved punishment, Grace as the unearned divine gift that makes salvation possible. Patience is a virtue celebrated in both the Stoic and Christian traditions as the capacity to endure difficulty without losing equanimity. Goodness and Truth invoke the classical transcendentals — the properties that medieval philosophy attributed to Being itself: the Good, the True, and the Beautiful.

For collectors, the relationship between H6 and H14 raises the question of whether to collect the complete virtue narrative across both series or to focus on one. The H6 series is generally somewhat less well known than H14 and may represent a more accessible entry point into virtue-titled Hirst butterfly works. The visual language is consistent across both series, meaning that works from H6 and H14 display well together; collectors who appreciate the conceptual coherence of the virtue theme may find that owning works from both series creates a richer intellectual and visual experience than either series provides alone.

The Elements sub-series — comprising works titled Earth, Air, Fire, and Water — represents a further extension of the thematic territory explored by The Virtues. Where the virtue series engages with moral and psychological categories, the Elements works engage with the foundational categories of natural philosophy: the four classical elements that, in the pre-Socratic tradition, were held to constitute the substance of all matter. Together, the virtue series and the Elements works suggest a comprehensive engagement with the deep structure of how Western thought has understood both the natural world and the human good.

Mercy (H6-1), from the related H6 series — Damien Hirst. Available at Guy Hepner, New York.

The Virtues in the Context of Hirst's Complete Career

Collectors who understand the arc of Hirst's career will appreciate The Virtues differently from those who encounter them in isolation. The series makes most sense when viewed against the full context of his practice — as the latest and most explicitly philosophical expression of preoccupations that have been central to his work since the beginning.

The Natural History works — the sharks, the cows, the anatomical models in formaldehyde and glass — are vanitas objects in the tradition of seventeenth-century Dutch painting: works that place mortality at the centre of aesthetic experience and that refuse the comfortable evasions through which most art sidesteps the fact of death. They are also works of extraordinary formal precision: the placement of the shark within its tank, the arrangement of the surgical instruments in the medicine cabinets, the layered butterfly wings in the Kaleidoscope paintings — all demonstrate a rigorous attention to compositional quality that has sometimes been undervalued in the critical response to Hirst.

The Spot Paintings occupy a different position in the arc: they are meditative rather than confrontational, inviting absorption rather than shock. The relationship between the Spot Paintings and Buddhist or Minimalist practice has been widely noted; they suggest a different mode of Hirst's sensibility — one concerned less with forcing a confrontation with mortality than with exploring what it might mean to look at colour with pure attention, free from narrative or symbolic overlay. The irony that the Spot Paintings, with their apparent simplicity and serial reproducibility, have proven among his most commercially successful works speaks to the power of this meditative quality.

The butterfly works bridge these two poles of his practice. They carry the mortality symbolism of the Natural History works — a butterfly is, after all, an insect whose adult life spans days or weeks — but they translate it into a register of beauty and transcendence rather than confrontation. The Kaleidoscope butterfly canvases use real wings precisely because their mortality is part of their meaning; the print editions, including The Virtues, extend this visual language into a more reproducible and accessible medium without losing its conceptual content.

The Virtues represents the most explicitly moral and aspirational expression of this trajectory. Where the Natural History works insist on death, and the butterfly canvases hold death and beauty in productive tension, The Virtues tilts towards aspiration, towards the possibility of human moral development, towards what we might become rather than what we will inevitably lose. For collectors who have followed Hirst's career, this arc adds a dimension of meaning to The Virtues that works from earlier in his career cannot provide.

Edition Structure and Print Specifications

Understanding the edition structure of The Virtues is essential for collectors approaching the series. The H14 works are produced as signed and numbered limited editions — meaning that each print in the series is individually signed by Hirst and carries a unique number within the edition, establishing its place within the total production run. The edition number and the artist's signature are typically found in pencil in the lower margin of each print, following the conventions of fine art printmaking.

The edition sizes for The Virtues are consistent with Hirst's standard practice for serious fine art prints: large enough to ensure wide availability to collectors, but restricted enough to maintain scarcity and support long-term value. Standard editions are typically accompanied by Artist's Proofs (APs) — a small number of prints produced alongside the main edition, marked AP and typically retained by the artist or publisher rather than sold through normal commercial channels. APs are generally considered to be of equivalent quality and value to numbered edition prints, though their relative scarcity can attract a premium in the secondary market.

Each print in the H14 series is produced on high-quality archival paper — a specification that matters for long-term conservation, as the paper substrate is one of the primary determinants of a print's longevity. The paper weight and surface finish of The Virtues prints are chosen to support the specific visual effects of the butterfly wing compositions: the slight texture of the paper interacts with the screenprinted inks to create the subtle depth and luminosity that characterises the finished works.

Collectors should note that The Virtues works are available in different formats and sizes — something that is common across Hirst's print production and that can create confusion for buyers unfamiliar with the series. Larger format editions typically command higher prices, both because of the greater material cost of production and because of the enhanced visual impact of the works at scale. When comparing prices across the series, it is important to ensure that like is being compared with like: edition number, format, size, and condition all affect value, and a significant price differential between two apparently similar works usually reflects a real difference in one or more of these variables.

Authentication and Provenance

The question of authentication is central to collecting any Hirst print, and The Virtues series is no exception. As one of the most recognisable and commercially successful artists in the world, Hirst's work has attracted a significant market in forgeries and misattributions — and the butterfly wing compositions, with their visually complex but reproducible aesthetic, are among the more frequently counterfeited categories of his output.

Authentic editions of The Virtues are produced and authenticated through Other Criteria, Hirst's own publishing operation. Each print should be accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity (COA) issued by Other Criteria, which includes the title of the work, the edition number, the year of production, and confirmation of the artist's signature. The COA is typically printed on high-quality paper and carries the Other Criteria branding and contact details. Collectors should be wary of works offered without a COA, or with a COA that does not match the Other Criteria format.

Physical inspection of the print itself provides additional evidence of authenticity. Genuine The Virtues prints are produced to very high technical standards: the screenprinting is sharp and precisely registered, the colours are consistent with the published documentation of each work, and the paper quality is excellent. Common indicators of fraudulent prints include inconsistent colour, poor registration, paper that feels thin or cheap, and signatures that appear printed rather than hand-applied.

When purchasing works from the secondary market — through auction houses, dealers, or private sellers — it is important to obtain a full provenance history for the work: documentation of every sale and transfer of ownership since the work left the publisher. Gaps in provenance history are not automatically disqualifying, but they do require additional due diligence. Major auction houses apply their own authentication processes before accepting works for sale, which provides an additional layer of protection for buyers at those channels.

Reassurance (H14-5), from The Virtues series — Damien Hirst. Available at Guy Hepner, New York.

Market Performance and Investment Considerations

The market for The Virtues series sits within the broader context of the Hirst butterfly print market — itself one of the most active segments of the contemporary print market internationally. Hirst's butterfly works have demonstrated consistent demand across multiple market cycles, supported by the broad international collector base that his work commands and by the genuine visual quality of the compositions.

Within the butterfly print market, The Virtues series occupies a mid-to-upper tier. The Mantra series — Hirst's most accessible and widely distributed butterfly print editions — provides the entry point to this market, with prices typically ranging from the low thousands for smaller unsigned editions to the mid-to-high five figures for signed, larger format works. The Virtues works, with their greater conceptual specificity and their association with the moral and philosophical themes of Hirst's mature work, tend to command prices at the higher end of this range and above it for the most desirable works in the best condition.

The factors that most significantly affect the value of individual The Virtues prints are: edition number (lower numbers within an edition sometimes attract a premium, though this is not universal), format and size (larger works command higher prices), condition (pristine, professionally stored works significantly outperform those with any visible damage or deterioration), and provenance (works with clear, documented sale history from Other Criteria onwards are more straightforwardly valued than those with gaps in documentation).

The relationship between the unique Kaleidoscope butterfly paintings and the print editions is worth understanding for collectors considering the market context. The unique canvases — which incorporate real butterfly wings in their physical structure — achieve prices orders of magnitude higher than print editions at auction, with major Kaleidoscope works achieving seven figures and above. This creates a significant aspirational premium for the print editions, which offer the same visual language and conceptual framework at a fraction of the cost. Collectors who cannot access the unique canvas market frequently build significant holdings in the print editions as a result.

How to Collect The Virtues Series

Approaching The Virtues as a collector involves decisions about scope, budget, condition, and acquisition strategy that are worth thinking through carefully before committing to purchases.

The most fundamental decision is whether to collect single works from the series or to aim for a complete set. There are arguments for both approaches. A single work — selected for its personal resonance or for the specific virtue it embodies — can be a deeply satisfying acquisition and a significant presence in a domestic or commercial space. The complete set, however, offers a substantially richer intellectual and visual experience: the eight works together constitute a moral programme that no single work can represent, and the experience of living with the full series creates an ongoing dialogue between the different virtues and their visual embodiments.

For collectors aiming at the complete set, the acquisition strategy matters. Individual works vary in their availability at any given moment, and the secondary market for the series fluctuates. A strategy of patient accumulation — acquiring works as they become available at appropriate prices rather than paying a premium for immediate completion — typically produces better results than a rushed push to complete the set quickly. It is also worth considering whether to include H6 works alongside H14, and whether to aim for consistent edition numbers across the series (which some collectors prefer for aesthetic and documentary reasons).

Condition assessment is critical for any print acquisition, and The Virtues works are no exception. The paper substrate, the inks, and any additional surface treatments should all be inspected — ideally by a specialist with experience of Hirst's print production — before purchase. The most important condition issues to check for are: light damage (fading or discolouration of inks, particularly metallic or UV-reactive elements), water damage (staining, buckling, tidelines), handling damage (creases, tears, abrasion), and foxing (the small brown spots caused by acid in the paper interacting with humidity over time).

The question of edition number deserves some attention. Within any given edition, the first few prints produced (low numbers) are sometimes preferred by collectors on the grounds that they represent the best impression — the moment when the screens are freshest and the ink application most precise. In practice, the technical standards of production at Other Criteria are sufficiently high that the variation between prints at different points within the edition is generally minimal; the preference for low numbers is partly a matter of convention and partly of genuine connoisseurship. For most collectors, edition position is a secondary consideration compared to overall condition.

Caring for Your Virtues Prints

The long-term preservation of The Virtues prints requires attention to the same environmental factors that affect all fine art on paper. Light, humidity, temperature, and handling are the primary variables to manage.

Light is the most significant threat to the longevity of screenprinted works. Ultraviolet radiation causes inks to fade and paper to yellow and become brittle over time; the effect is cumulative and irreversible. Any work that is displayed rather than stored should be framed behind UV-filtering glazing — either UV-filtering glass or UV-filtering acrylic (which has the advantage of being lighter and less prone to breakage, though it can attract static that draws dust to the surface). Works should not be displayed in direct sunlight under any circumstances, and exposure to artificial UV sources (such as some fluorescent lighting) should also be minimised. For works that are not currently displayed, storage in a dark, climate-controlled environment is strongly preferable to any kind of light exposure.

Humidity should be maintained between 45 and 55 per cent relative humidity. Both excessively high humidity (which promotes mould growth and can cause paper to expand and buckle) and excessively low humidity (which causes paper to become brittle and can lead to cracking of inks or surface coatings) are damaging. Temperature should be maintained consistently in the range of 65 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit (18 to 21 degrees Celsius); fluctuations in temperature cause corresponding fluctuations in relative humidity, so consistency is more important than absolute values.

Framing for display should use conservation-grade materials throughout: acid-free mats and backing boards, UV-filtering glazing, and a frame seal that prevents environmental pollutants from entering the framing package. Works should be matted so that the glazing does not make contact with the paper surface; contact between glazing and paper can cause adhesion, transfer of moisture, and other forms of damage over time. Professional framing by a specialist with experience of fine art prints is strongly recommended.

Handling should be minimised and, when necessary, carried out with clean cotton gloves. Fingerprints transfer oils and acids to the paper surface that can cause long-term staining; the edges and corners of prints are particularly vulnerable to handling damage. When moving works that are not framed, they should be handled as flat as possible and never rolled; rolling a screenprint risks cracking the ink film.

Insurance documentation should be established on acquisition. A condition report prepared by a specialist conservator at the time of purchase creates a baseline record against which future assessments can be compared. High-quality photographs of all four margins, the signature and edition number, and any distinguishing features of the paper or surface should be retained. Insurance should be obtained through a specialist art insurance provider rather than a general household policy; specialist insurers understand the specific risks associated with fine art and typically offer more comprehensive coverage at competitive rates.

Selflessness (H14-7), from The Virtues series — Damien Hirst. Available at Guy Hepner, New York.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Damien Hirst's The Virtues series?

The Virtues (H14) is a series of eight large-format screenprints by Damien Hirst, each titled after an abstract moral concept: Realisation, Happiness, Tolerance, Wisdom, Reassurance, Resolution, Selflessness, and Knowledge. The works use Hirst's signature butterfly wing visual language — symmetrical compositions of great formal complexity and beauty — in the service of a philosophical and moral programme. They are among the most conceptually developed works in his print output and represent a significant moment in his career's engagement with themes of aspiration and human flourishing.

How many works are in The Virtues series?

The H14 series comprises eight individual prints: Realisation, Happiness, Tolerance, Wisdom, Reassurance, Resolution, Selflessness, and Knowledge. The related H6 series adds five further virtue-titled works (Mercy, Grace, Patience, Goodness, Truth), and the Elements sub-series adds four more (Earth, Air, Fire, Water). Collectors who want to engage comprehensively with Hirst's virtue-themed work will want to understand all three groups.

What is the difference between The Virtues (H14) and the H6 series?

The H14 and H6 series share the same butterfly wing visual language and virtue-naming convention but constitute distinct bodies of work with different titles and visual compositions. H14 draws more heavily on philosophical and psychological virtue concepts (Wisdom, Knowledge, Happiness), while H6 is more rooted in theological and classical moral vocabulary (Mercy, Grace, Truth). The two series display well together and are conceptually complementary; many serious collectors of Hirst's virtue works acquire from both series.

Are The Virtues prints made with real butterfly wings?

The The Virtues print editions are screenprints — they are not made with real butterfly wings. The butterfly wing imagery in these works is reproduced through the screenprinting process. Hirst's unique Kaleidoscope canvases, by contrast, incorporate real butterfly wings set into household gloss paint. The distinction matters for conservation: the print editions do not carry the specific preservation challenges associated with real insect wings, though they still require the standard conservation care appropriate for fine art screenprints.

How do I authenticate a Damien Hirst Virtues print?

Authentic editions of The Virtues are produced and authenticated through Other Criteria, Hirst's own publishing operation. Each print should be accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity (COA) from Other Criteria, which includes the title, edition number, year of production, and confirmation of the artist's signature. Physical inspection should confirm high-quality screenprinting, accurate colour, and a hand-applied pencil signature in the lower margin. When purchasing from the secondary market, a complete provenance chain from Other Criteria is strongly preferable.

What is the edition size for The Virtues prints?

The edition sizes for The Virtues series follow Hirst's standard practice for fine art print editions: large enough to ensure broad collector access while maintaining sufficient scarcity to support long-term value. The precise edition numbers for each work in the series should be verified with the publisher or vendor at the time of acquisition, as they vary between individual works and between format sizes. Standard editions are accompanied by a small number of Artist's Proofs (APs), which are typically retained by the artist or publisher.

How does The Virtues series relate to Hirst's other butterfly works?

The Virtues is part of a long lineage of butterfly works in Hirst's practice that includes the unique Kaleidoscope canvases, the Beautiful paintings, the I Am Become Death series, and the Mantra print editions. Each of these series uses the butterfly wing visual language differently: the Kaleidoscopes incorporate real wings in unique canvases; the Mantra editions provide an accessible entry point to the butterfly print market; The Virtues occupies the conceptually most ambitious position within the print editions, using the visual language in the service of an explicit moral programme. Collectors who appreciate Hirst's butterfly works generally find that The Virtues rewards engagement more deeply than more decoratively oriented series.

Are Damien Hirst Virtues prints a good investment?

The butterfly print market has shown consistent demand over multiple market cycles, supported by Hirst's large international collector base and by the genuine visual quality of the works. The Virtues series, with its greater conceptual specificity and its association with the more mature and philosophically serious phase of Hirst's career, tends to hold value well and to attract serious collectors rather than purely speculative buyers. As with any art investment, condition, provenance, edition structure, and the quality of the acquisition channel all significantly affect value; collectors are advised to seek specialist advice and to focus on quality over quantity when building a holding in this market.

Where can I buy The Virtues prints?

Authentic editions of The Virtues are available through galleries that specialise in Hirst's work and through the secondary market via major auction houses and reputable dealers. Guy Hepner Gallery at 177 Tenth Avenue, New York, holds inventory across Hirst's print output and can advise on available works, current market values, and acquisition strategy. For those looking to sell existing holdings, Guy Hepner offers free, confidential valuations.

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