From 2006 to 2008, London’s Royal Parks Foundation ran a project called Deckchair Dreams, which offered deckchairs by artists, architects, chefs, filmmakers, and fashion and industrial designers for use in the city’s eight Royal Parks and for sale in limited editions to benefit the Foundation’s mission of maintaining the public grounds. Some 70 cultural practitioners responded to the theme of “rare and wonderful things of the Royal Parks” by creating innovative sling designs, and in 2007 Damien Hirst contributed one that incorporated his signature butterfly motif.
The Hirst chair, which was produced in a limited edition of 250 and priced — along with the others — at $125 plus postage, quickly sold out. A year later, a savvy buyer capitalized on his purchase by selling the chair at a summer auction at Christie’s New York for $10,625. Now Hirst himself is profiting from his charitable contribution by offering the same deckchair in an unlimited edition in six new colors at his Other Criteria shops in London and New York for $425.
