"For the Love of God" 2007

In 2007, Hirst created this work titled "For the Love of God". The work consisted of platinum, diamonds, and human teeth. "For the Love of God" was cast in platinum from a real 18th century skull purchased by Hirst. The entire surface of the skull was then covered in 8,601 diamonds weighing in at 1,106.18 carats. At the center of the forehead is on pear-shaped pink diamond.

The title comes from his mother who asked him, "For the love of god, what are you going to do next?" This title fits into Hirst's death theme in a much different way than most of his other pieces. This piece was inspired by Mexican skulls encrusted in turquoise. Of "For the Love of God", Hirst says "I remember thinking it would be great to do a diamond one - but just prohibitively expensive," he recalls. “Then I started to think - maybe that’s why it is a good thing to do. Death is such a heavy subject, it would be good to make something that laughed in the face of it.”

Artist John Lekay, a former friend of Hirst's, claims that Hirst got the idea from his crystal skull which he created in 1993. While this work has obvious similarity to Lekay's, I do not believe that it is similar enough to say that Hirst copied Lekay's work.


Pescovitz, David. "Damien Hirst's Diamond Skull." Boingboing. 02 006 2007. Boingboing, Web. 23 Nov 2009.
Shaw, William. "The Iceman Cometh." New York Times 03 006 2007: n. pag. Web. 23 Nov 2009