NEW YORK—Late October found Damien Hirst in New York, where he installed some work at Aby Rosen’s Lever House and took a tour of the Guggenheim’s Richard Prince show with rock star Bono. Was he also in town to check on his shark, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art? Hirst was overheard grumbling about the piece’s placement and the issue of merchandising. Although the museum says it has no merchandise planned around the famed fish, the artist’s business manager, Frank Dunphy, says that there has been some “toing and froing.” If a deal materializes, don’t expect any plastic sharks or jars of formaldehyde. From the sound of it, the usual posters and postcards are more likely.

"Hirst's Shark Pickle" comes to ARTINFO from the December 2007 issue of Art & Auction magazine.