Back in mid September Damien Hirst decided to sell his art directly via Sotheby’s auction house. Bypassing his big-name gallerists: Larry Gagosian and Jay Joplin. Sotheby’s is enthusiastic and breathless needless to say.

Sotheby’s spokesman Oliver Barker has been quoted that “Damien is totally fearless. He’s not just an outstanding artist; he’s a cultural phenomenon.”

Gagosian & Joplin’s comment was not fit to print.

Sales are expected to range between $100 to $200 million. The most expensive of which is expected to be a cow with golden horns and hoofs encased in a formaldehyde filled gold display case.

Anyone that is familiar with the state of the film or especially the music industry will have a feeling of deja vu. As the middle market is continually in decline and producers and consumers are finding the distance and materials between them are either disappearing or rearranging in more direct value matchmaking oriented ways.

The conventional wisdom is that only blue chip artists could make this leap successfully but music has already show that even entry level artists can find that the old model of parent/child is less successful then a more community focused matchmaking system managed by independent investors or other like minded creators.

A newly discovered wooden sculpture of a Buddha that had religious objects sealed in its torso for 800 years sold for $14.3 million, setting a world record for any Japanese work of art, Christie’s auction house said.

The seated figure of Dainichi Nyorai, or the supreme Buddha, is attributed to Unkei, considered one of the two best sculptors of the early Kamakura period in the 1190s, when the most highly regarded Buddhist art was produced.

It was purchased at auction Tuesday by Mitsukoshi Ltd., one of Japan’s major department stores. Its presale estimate was $1.5 million to $2 million.

The Buddha, made of Cyprus wood, sits in a lotus position wearing princely attire, a crown and jewelry, and hair in a topknot. It is believed to have come from a temple during the Meiji period (1868-1911) when Shinto was adopted as the state religion of Japan, Christie’s said. Read more

The Art Institute of Chicago announced yesterday that the Gauguin ceramic sculpture “The Faun” which has been on display for about a decade is infact a forgery by Shaun Greenhalgh who is part of a larger family of forgers that has been under investigation by Scotland Yard for some time.

The Museum purchased the sculpture form a private dealer in London, who in turn bought it from a Sotheby’s auction in 1994.

Shaun Greenhalgh received a prison sentence of 4 years and 8 months last month. His mother, Olive, 83, was given a 12-month suspended sentence. The father, George, 84, broker of all the forged objects, had a deferred sentence pending medical reports.

For 17 years, the family carried on one of the most sophisticated forgery operations in modern history, faking scores of objects including antiquities, watercolors, paintings and modern sculpture, authorities said. Many of the pieces were copies of ancient objects or artworks thought to be lost.

UPDATE The Art Newspaper has published that the purchase price of the sculpture that the Art Institute would not like to declare was $125,000. The London dealer that sold it to the Institute bought the piece in 1994 for £20,700 or $42,382. Making a profit of $82,618 on the transaction.