Damien Hirst burns his own paintings as collectors swap artwork for NFTs

Damien Hirst has said he is not burning his art but “transforming it”, as he began setting fire to thousands of his creations as part of a new exhibition.

The British artist, 57, has begun the next stage of “The Currency” exhibition in south London, which will see him destroy a physical collection of his classic polka dot-style artworks in contained fires.

Collectors of those original pieces have agreed to swap their paintings for NFTs (non-fungible tokens) - cryptographic assets stored digitally with a unique identification code that cannot be copied but can be sold.

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