They didn't teach us about this at the Conservation Center

Damien Hirst’s shark floating in a tank of formaldehyde, recently sold for $12 million to US billionaire hedge fund manager Steve Cohen, is disintegrating and will need extensive conservation work to prevent it from further deterioration. This is the view of conservation scientists and natural history specialists who say that the bigger a specimen, the more difficult it is to preserve long-term in formaldehyde. . .

According to a 2000 report, which includes a section entitled "The rotting shark", by Alison Bracker of the Royal College of Art, Hirst used a formaldehyde solution of 5% strength. The report states that "conservation scientists have queried the wisdom of employing a weak solution to preserve an entire shark". . .

Hirst has stated that he did not use formaldehyde for preservation purposes but for aesthetic reasons. Speaking to the critic Stuart Morgan in 1996, he said, "I did an interview about conservation and they told me formaldehyde is not a perfect form of preservation.... They actually thought I was using formaldehyde to preserve an artwork for posterity, when in reality I use it to communicate an idea".

Posted by David on February 4, 2005 1:09 PM