Damien Hirst accused of plagiarism in breakthrough artwork

Telegraph

14-07-2025

Damien Hirst is embroiled in a plagiarism row after being accused of stealing the idea of using live flies in his breakthrough work from a fellow artist.
Hamad Butt, a classmate of Hirst at Goldsmiths university in south London, displayed Fly-Piece, consisting of live flies in a vitrine, at his degree show in June 1990.
A month later, Hirst reportedly unveiled A Thousand Years, a glass case full of live flies feeding on a cow's head, which elevated him to worldwide acclaim.
Butt, meanwhile, Butt died in 1994 aged 32 after developing Aids, and having failed to break through into the art world.
Dominic Johnson, a curator who has overseen a new exhibition of Butt's work at the Whitechapel Gallery in east London, claimed A Thousand Years 'appears to have directly appropriated from Butt'.
Mr Johnson, a professor of performance and visual culture at Queen Mary University, London, claimed Hirst 'likely encountered Butt's piece first-hand in its development' as Butt had produced a prototype in his studio in 1989.
It is claimed that Hirst displayed A Thousand Years at his exhibition Gambler which opened in July 1990.
Butt felt that Hirst had appropriated his idea and 'was unhappy when Hirst's sculpture received greater acclaim', Mr Johnson wrote in the exhibition's catalogue, according to The Times.
'Whether the appropriation was direct or not, Butt chose to withdraw the Fly-Piece from his subsequent installation [in November 1990],' he added.
Butt's original artwork, which has since been lost, has been recreated for the exhibition.
Hirst continued to produce bio-art, most notably animals preserved in formaldehyde, including a dove, a pair of calves, and a shark dissected into three pieces.
He dominated the British art world for two decades and has been reported to be the world's richest artist, with an estimated net worth of more than £300 million.
The Turner Prize-winning artist's career has been dogged by allegations of plagiarism.
In 2010, an art magazine published an article accusing Hirst of producing 15 works 'inspired by others' including his work Pharmacy. Charles Thomson, an artist and co-founder of Stuckists, a group which campaigns against conceptual art, tallied the number of plagiarism claims relating to Hirst's work in Jackdaw magazine.
In 2007, former friend John LeKay claimed Hirst's diamond skull For the Love of God was based on his own crystal skulls made in 1993
Although Hirst has faced allegations that some of his works were the ideas of others, copyright does not protect ideas, only a specific form of expression.
In 2000, it was disclosed that Hirst had paid an undisclosed sum to prevent legal action for breach of copyright by designers of a toy which resembled his famous bronze sculpture, Hymn.
Hirst, 60, has always denied allegations of plagiarism but admitted in a 2018 interview that 'all my ideas are stolen'.