The world’s richest artist will burn the originals of his NFT paintings

Damien Hirst, the world’s richest artist, will burn thousands of physical originals of his paintings the day before the opening of the Frieze Art Fair in London, one of the world’s largest contemporary art fairs.

Damien Hirst, who creates both physical and NFT paintings, offered the owners of his works a choice: to leave the artwork in its usual format or to burn it and give preference to NFT. 4,851 collectors decided to burn their paintings in favor of non-fungible tokens, while the majority of 5,149 NFT holders decided to exchange them for physical versions of the paintings.

Hirst described his project The Art Newspaper as «the most exciting artistic manifestation to date» that touches on the idea of art as currency and a means of saving: «It's no accident that all governments decorate their coins and banknotes with works of art. They do it to make us believe in money. Without the appeal of art, it is difficult for us, the people, to believe in anything.»

Critics of Damien Hirst’s work have mixed opinions about the artist’s shocking way of presenting his work, but agree that burning a series of works in exchange for digital copies is a good advertising move. This will further attract the attention of a potential audience, as Hirst’s real success in the art world is undeniable.

«I believe in art in all its forms, but the field of non-fungible tokens is so exciting! I don’t know much about it, but I already love the NFT community, it 's amazing,» Damien Hirst said back in late July.