At home with the Hirsts... art’s selfie obsessed
So where’s the pickled shark, Damien? An intriguing guided tour of the artist’s homes given by his VERY revealing muse
HIS outlandish installations, including pickled sharks and cows, and a flair for publicity as an artist have brought him vast fame and fortune, yet Damien Hirst has always managed to keep his private life away from the public gaze. Until now.
Because his selfie-loving young girlfriend has released a series of photographs of the artist’s occasionally bizarre lifestyle.
Pictures posted on Instagram and Twitter by glamorous Katie Keight, 26, offer a rare insight into Britain’s richest living artist – a man who has a £150million property portfolio and an overall fortune estimated at £215million.
Thanks to Miss Keight, we can now see the romantic couple surrounded by Hirst’s characteristicallydeath-obsessedart–including skull-studded furniture – or simply relaxing together.
One shows them wearing coloured contact lenses as they prepare to go out for a Chinese meal, while another shows them sunbathing with the caption ‘Sol mates’.
They are also seen swimming in clear blue waters on luxury holidays in Morocco and Thailand, and posing for selfies with artists Jeff Koons and Jonathan Yeo.
Hirst, 51, who famously created a platinum skull encrusted with 8,601 diamonds which sold for £50 million, is mainly pictured dressed in black or pulling faces. There are also hundreds of posts of Keight alone – posing naked by a swimming pool or relaxing in an extravagant bubble bath.
Before his relationship with Keight, Hirst dated swimwear model Roxie Nafousi, who is now said to have a collection of his paintings worth millions. He also has three sons – Connor, 21, Cassius, 16, and ten-year-old Cyrus – from a 20- year relationship with Californian designer Maia Norman.
The images provide a glimpse of some of the sumptuous homes that form Hirst’s property empire. These include a £5million villa on the Thai island of Phuket, and the £3 million, 300-room Toddington Manor in Gloucestershire.
Earlier this year, Hirst won a planning battle to install a swim- ming pool and yoga room – Keight often posts pictures of herself in yoga pose – in a mega-basement of his £40million John Nash home overlooking Regent’s Park.
The artist was introduced to Keight by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein at a Foundation for AIDS Research party. The millionaire lifestyle that she is afforded thanks to Hirst’s success does not stop her from mocking him. She often teases Hirst about being old but dressing young. In one picture she writes ‘For the love of god’ – also the name of his £50million skull – in response to him wearing a beanie hat.
Is the yoga room a sign that the relationship is becoming more serious? Earlier this year, Hirst told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Katie’s the only reason I go to bed at night.’