This is a diamond encrusted skull made by
Damien Hirst. If you don't know who he is, he makes shocking, macabre, and expensive (like hundreds of million dollars, expensive) sculptures including lots and lots of contorted dead animals in formaldehyde. Apparently he's also the
richest (or one of the richest) artists alive today.
This particular beauty is called
For the Love of God and is encrusted with over 8,500 diamonds, including a huge pear shaped pink diamond in the center of the forehead. It is a platinum cast of a real human skull and is was sold for a
hundred million dollars. I wonder how the person (
who died between 1720 and 1810) whose skull this is as casting of, and whose teeth are on the sculpture, would feel about this.
In my opinion, the existence of this sculpture, and the existence of Damien Hirst as a hugely wealthy, as well as controversial, artist says something about our fascination with, and our fear of, death. It seems that people are so disgusted by his works that we can't look away.
