Dead expensive

Here's a flagship show by our best and most renowned maker of phenomenal objects, Damien Hirst. With all the skills of a superlative, luxury goods craftsman, and a fanatical vision, Hirst's work combines idolatry and high religious orthodoxy - Mexico's 'Day of the Dead' co-existing with its devout Roman Catholicism is a fair comparison. The exhibition features a life-sized cast of a human skull in platinum, with a multitude of diamonds set in it. This fabulously expensive piece of artistic merchandise may even be, as the press release says, 'without precedent in the history of art', although the truly rich may deem it puzzlingly incomplete without the rest of its skeleton. Neal Brown FIRST POSTED JUNE 1, 2007 Damien Hirst, June 3 - July 7, White Cube, 48 Hoxton Square, London N1 6PB and and 25-26 Mason's Yard, London SW1Y 6BU 020 7930 5373