The final session of Sotheby’s precedent-shattering single artist auction, "Damien Hirst — Beautiful Inside My Head Forever," realized £16.7 million ($29,834,000), bringing the grand tally for the three sessions to £111,576,800 ($200,953,342), a number that easily eclipses the combined pre-sale high estimate of £98 million. [To read about session one, click here, and session two, here.]

In a sale in which it was shocking to see anything from the giant bin of Hirst products fail to sell, the afternoon’s buy-in rate of 2 percent might be a result of bidding fatigue, or the happenstance of a few jet-lagged Russians or Qataris falling asleep.

The two unsold pieces, each an insipid and huge vitrine, elicited zero interest. Killing Time, from 2008 (as all the works in the sale are dated) — which contains a white, formica-topped table, a white office chair, a plastic Evian bottle, a water glass, two pills, and a Panerai Luminor Marina wristwatch — died with a lone chandelier bid (est. £400–600,000). The same fate befell Time to Kill, a version of the same work but in black, and further differentiated with a wall clock, a Blackberry, and a bronze iguana. It was also bought in, without a single bid (est. £400–600,000).

In a brief phone interview shortly after the afternoon session concluded, Hirst’s manager, Frank Dunphy, said that both he and the artist were exhausted from the marathon. "But we are absolutely delighted with it all. To get this amazing result in the teeth of that global financial gale and succeed in selling over $200 million worth of art, says a lot about Damien's art," he said.

As to rumors from the trade that more works from Hirst’s prodigious production are waiting for an auction sequel, Dunphy replied: "No, nothing is planned. You get one hit of this and you couldn't do it again."

Quo vadis, Damien?
Overall, in the three sessions, 218 of the 223 lots sold. Of those, three fetched more than £5 million (or five over $5 millions dollars) and 18 over £1 million (or 48 over $1 million).

Among the auction's more interesting figures, and one that will be analyzed for some time to come, is the combined hammer price for the three-session marathon of £93 million.

According to one dealer familiar with Hirst's operation, that figure translates to a cool take of £50 million for the artist, once you subtract the 10 percent fee to übermanager Dunphy, the five works (worth £2.77 million total) sold to benefit various charities, fabrication costs, expenses, and, oh, yes, taxes.

If there's any softness in Hirst’s market it's that his formaldehyde-solution sculptures, on the whole, did not perform as buoyantly as did his paintings and wall reliefs — although the very idea of any Hirst weakness sounds like a joke in light of the auction's staggering results.

Judd Tully is Editor at Large of Art+Auction.