(RED) Hot

NEW YORK—Art world charity auctions are hardly novel, but it isn’t every season that a Who’s Who of contemporary-art stars—Jasper Johns, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Rachel Whiteread, to name a few—with Damien Hirst at the helm, create major works for the occasion. On the night of Valentine’s Day this year, Sotheby’s New York is hosting what it has billed as “the most significant charity auction of contemporary art ever,” to benefit the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The idea was hatched while Hirst was on vacation in the south of France with U2 front man turned philanthropist Bono. The artist proceeded to handwrite more than 100 letters to his peers asking them to create pieces relating to love or the color red, symbolic of both the holiday and of Bono’s (RED) project, which has raised more than $50 million in merchandise sales with such partners as the Gap and Motorola since it launched in March 2006. In a testament to the power of the contemporary-art market, this latest fund-raising endeavor—with a presale estimate of just over $40 million—is poised to match that sum in one night. The 70-some lots range from O Nob (est. $30–40,000), a sexually charged wool and wire phallic sculpture by Sarah Lucas, to an artist’s proof of Andreas Gursky’s Pyongyang IV (est. $300–500,000), a dazzling image of a North Korean gymnastics festival. Hirst has offered up seven creations done specifically for the sale. Among them are All You Need Is Love (est. $1–1.5 million), a trademark butterfly painting in the form of a lipstick-red heart, and Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way (est. $5–7 million), a cabinet similar to his Lullaby Spring, which sold for £9.7 million ($19.2 million) at Sotheby’s London in June—this one, though, is filled with hand-cast and -painted HIV medication. In an equally public-spirited gesture, Sotheby’s and Gagosian Gallery, where the works are being previewed February 4 to 13, are waiving their fees.

"(RED) Hot" originally appeared in the February 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's February 2008 Table of Contents.