The $3 million coral art that Sphinx destroyed when a 66-year-old Florida woman smashed into her Rolls Royce was designed by British artist Damien Hirst and owned by hedge fund mogul Steven Tananbaum.
The unidentified female driver hurtled through the backyard in Palm Beach, Florida, before plowing through a fence and a five-foot seawall.
Amazing photos shared by the Palm Beach Police Department show the car hanging from the seawall with its nose buried in the sand.
Tananbaum built GoldenTree Asset Management into a $47 billion hedge fund. As of 2023, he is worth $2.2 billion, according to him Benzinga. Art news named Tananbaum and his wife Lisa as one of the top 200 art collectors of 2022.
According to the Tananbaums, the statue known as “Sphinx,” part of a series called “Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable” by Hirst, has suffered serious damage. Yahoo News.
A photo of the $3 million statue — known as “Sphinx” and part of a larger series — after it was hit by the driver was shared by the Palm Beach Police Department
A photo shared by the Palm Beach Police Department shows the car hanging from the seawall with its nose buried in the sand
The Sphinx is part of a satirical series of sculptures by Hirst of what are intended to be fake artifacts, for which Hirst has even made a documentary series that tells the backstories behind them.
The documentary in which Hirst and a crew revealed the secrets of the fake shipwreck.
The premise behind the exhibition was that an astonishing array of ancient statues and artifacts would have been lost when a huge ship sank in the Indian Ocean 2,000 years ago.
The debut in Venice was hated by critics, one of them saying that the ‘absurd’ show Treasures From The Wreck Of The Unbelievable ‘should be dumped at the bottom of the sea’.
Hirst rose to fame in 1992 when his 14-foot tiger shark stained in formaldehyde became the centerpiece of the Saatchi Gallery Young British Artists (YBAs) exhibition.
Next came a pickled mutton and a carved cross-section of a cow and calf, and three years later he won the Turner Prize.
Talking to the BBC of his art in 2018, he said, “If I put it in a dumpster outside a pub, would anyone take it home?” And you think, ‘yes, they would.’ If it’s good, it won’t stay on the street. I think that’s a good way to find out whether a painting is good or not.’
In 2022, Hirst burned some of his original artwork worth about $12.5 million collectively — after promising to destroy them as part of a digital art stunt.
The Sphinx piece by British artist Damien Hirst is on display at the press presentation of his exhibition ‘Treasures of the Wreck of the Unbelievable’
The piece is part of a satirical series of sculptures by Hirst of what are intended to be fake artifacts, for which Hirst has even made a documentary series exploring the backstories behind
The premise behind the exhibition was that an astonishing array of ancient statues and artifacts would have been lost when a huge ship sank in the Indian Ocean 2,000 years ago.
Steven Tananbaum (pictured left) and Lisa Tananbaum (pictured right), who own the piece, say it is heavily damaged
The female driver hurtled through the backyard in Palm Beach, Florida, before plowing through a fence and a five-foot seawall
Hirst rose to fame in 1992 when his 14-foot tiger shark stained in formaldehyde became the centerpiece of the Saatchi Gallery Young British Artists (YBAs) exhibition
The 66-year-old driver has not yet been identified
Police said the woman – who was a local resident – did not appear intoxicated and was taken to nearby St Mary’s Medical Center for examination. Officers would not say whether she had been charged.
The car turned out to be a 2021 Rolls Royce Dawn – worth approximately $359,250.
The incident occurred just after 6pm on Friday on affluent Canterbury Lane.
From there, she told police she couldn’t remember the hours leading up to the crash.
A police report said she was caught on camera entering the property from the driveway before traveling east and making contact with the curb.
The vehicle came to a stop before the driver headed east again and hit the statue.
She then crashed into a landscape fence before crashing into the seawall and onto the beach, police said.
She was promptly rescued by the city’s fire department. No one was injured and the vehicle was towed away.