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Various reports in the British media today note the scathing reaction Hirst received after contacting a photographer this weekend to ask for permission to make a painting from an image of investigators outside Alistair Wilson's house.

Wilson, a 30-year-old banker, was mysteriously shot last November on the doorstep of his home in Nairn, Scotland. Police are still investigating the murder.

Wilson's father told Scotland's Sunday Mail that Hirst's interest in making a photo-realist painting of the crime scene "just seems sick. I have seen some of his work and I am not impressed."

Police followed, calling the decision "insensitive and distressing." Even a local MP joined in the fracas, saying about Hirst: "This man seems to make a living out of causing offence." Most people, he said, would find the work "tasteless" and "heartless," according to the Daily Mail.

A spokesperson for Hirst the Young British Artist made famous to the public by his sharks in formaldehyde and pickled calves told the Guardian that the story had been "blown out of all proportion."

FOR FULL STORY CLICK:

BBC News: "Death Scene Painting Plan Dropped"

The Daily Mail: "Hirst abandons murder scene painting"

The Guardian: "Hirst Ditches Plans to Use Photograph from Scene of Unsolved Murder"

The Scotsman: "Fury over Hirst's plan to turn banker killing into painting"