Las Vegas is a city built on outrageous size and excess. Damien Hirst’s art career is also partly built on outrageous size and excess. So it seems pretty fitting that his 60 foot tall sculpture, Demon With Bowl, has found a new home in Vegas’ Palms Casino Resort.
An edition of the massive statue, which appeared in Hirst’s divisive Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable show, has been acquired by billionaire collectors and casino owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta for the resort. The price remains undisclosed, but ARTnews reported, at the time of the original show, that it was worth around $14 million.
The new artwork – which will be the centrepiece in the hotel’s new pool (what else?) – isn’t the only Hirst piece the resort owns. They already have a preserved, 13 foot long tiger shark in three steel tanks, paintings, and even accessories such as coasters designed exclusively for the bar, as reported by Artnet.
Of course, there are works by other blue chip artists in the Palms Casino Resort too, mostly taken from the Fertittas’ collection. As big as it is, the new statue will still have to stand out against artworks from Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Richard Prince, and Takashi Murakami, to name just a few.