Diamond-Studded Baby Skull

Damien Hirst isn't known for producing subtle works, but his latest creation has some critics scratching their heads. He is a British provocateur and Turner Prize winner whose most famous works include a shark preserved in a tank of formaldehyde, a living installation of a fly's life cycle and a sculpture depicting an anatomical cross-section of a pregnant woman titled "Virgin Mother."

Recently, Hirst finds himself once more at the center of art-world. Raised hackles with a diamond-studded skull cast in platinum from a long-deceased child's skull. He has used a dead baby's skull in his newest piece of art, bejeweling the infant's remains with more than 8,000 pink and white diamonds. The piece, titled "For Heaven's Sake," will debut at the Gagosian gallery in Hong Kong later this month in the show "Forgotten Promises”.

This latest work follows his piece For the Love of God in 2007, an adult skull studded with more than 8600 diamonds including a $6.5 million pink diamond set in the forehead, making it the largest diamond piece commissioned since the Crown jewels.Which went on sale in 2007 with a $100 million price tag

The baby's skull on which the work was modelled is believed to be that of a newborn less than two weeks old. Hirst piece of art got negative feedback and offended many people most especially those who have suffered the bereavement of a child.

In a statement emailed by the Gagosian Gallery, Hirst said: “Diamonds are about perfection and clarity and wealth and sex and death and immortality.”

“They are a symbol of everything that’s eternal, but then they have a dark side as well.”

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