Scarcity and Abundance
I’m obsessed with the concept of scarcity. The idea that scarcity can cause an object to have value well beyond its initial worth is fascinating to me. In 2007, Damien Hirst took an actual human skull, encrusted it in over 8,000 flawless diamonds and gave it a £50 million price tag. The skull sold in a shroud of secrecy as a group of private investors purchased it for a rumored £38 million — well beyond the £12–15 million it apparently cost to produce. Flash forward to 2012 and Hirst has joined forces with s[edition], a digital gallery and art marketplace. For $800, you can own “For Heaven’s Sake,” a 360-degree scan of a baby’s skull covered in diamonds. The run consists of 2,000 versions of the same digital file of which 27 have been sold so far. s[edition] is attempting to bring scarcity...
