© Damien Hirst, photo by Prudence Cumming

Damien Hirst's "The Golden Calf" (2008) sold for £10,345,250 ($18,661,796) at his historic single-artist sale at Sotheby’s.

Photo by Judd Tully

Workers unload Damien Hirst's art before his Sotheby's sale.

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In the lead-up to and immediately following Sotheby’s sales of 223 new works by Damien Hirst, which brought in a combined $200 million, journalists scrambled for angles on the sale and preceding exhibition. Here’s a little roundup of what they had to say.

1. Of course he’s changed the market. Hirst has always, always been a savvy self-promoter.

2. How long can the art market boom while the financial markets bust?

3. Look! Robert Hughes says: It’s ludicrous!

4. Hey, that’s nothing new. Holman Hunt made a similar move back in 1866.

5. I was banned!

6. “It's hard not to feel… the artist has gone into a strange phase of 21st-century postmodern mannerism, in which he recapitulates all his ideas, at the same time, at very high speed. Some of the results seem a little frantic.”

7. “Hirst …[bet] his reputation on this sale.”

8. Um, yeah, that painting of a cat he did in 1982? Sorry, but it’s still worthless.

9. OMG, Hirst had a bad dream before the sale.

10. “[M]any of the smaller works feel like they've been mass-produced to sate demand for Hirst-branded material. There is simply far too much on show, and a lot of the work is poor.”

11. Make your own Hirst! (scroll to the bottom of the article)

12. Does this mean it’s a bull market for art?

13. This is the highest Hirst will ever float.

Sarah Douglas is Staff Writer at Art+Auction. She blogs at "The Appraisal."