Which edition, and where is its certificate
Nobody mistakes a spot print for a poster. The Hirst problem is the opposite one, and it is a problem of volume.
Hirst’s editions are unmistakable, and there are a very large number of them. They were published across three decades by three different houses — Science Ltd, then Other Criteria from 2005, then HENI — under conventions that changed with each, in edition sizes running from a few dozen impressions to several thousand. “A Hirst print” therefore narrows almost nothing.
Which is why the document matters as much as the sheet. On most artists the paperwork confirms what the work already tells you. Here it is frequently the only thing that ties a specific impression to a specific edition, and its absence is felt in the estimate rather than argued about in principle.
Five things to check
01Photograph the reverse before the front
On the recent HENI editions the signature and numbering are on a printed label on the back, and that is the only inscription there is. Owners routinely send us a photograph of the image and nothing else, which is the one view that cannot answer the question.
02Find the certificate before you find a buyer
HENI for the recent prints and digital editions, Other Criteria for much of the 2000s output, Science Ltd for older material. Locate it, photograph it, and check that the details on it match the work. If it cannot be found, that is worth knowing now rather than three weeks into a consignment.
03Match the inscriptions to the edition, not to what you expected
Pencil on the front is right for the earlier editions and wrong for some of the later ones. The absence of a hand signature is not by itself a fault. What matters is whether the sheet is inscribed the way its own edition was, which is a question about the edition rather than about the sheet.
04Look at the surface in raking light
Tilt the work towards a window and look across it rather than at it. Foils and gloss show handling marks, scuffs and pressure that vanish in a flat photograph and that a specialist will find immediately.
05Do not improve it first
Reframing, cleaning or flattening before anyone has seen it destroys more value than leaving it alone, and on these surfaces the damage is usually permanent. Photograph it as it is.
Four bodies of work, four sets of questions
They do not price together, and they do not document alike.
- The spots
- The largest single body of printed work and the one most owners hold. The editions span several printmaking techniques with sizes running from a few dozen impressions to several thousand, published across three decades. Two sheets that look interchangeable can belong to different editions with different scarcity, which is why identification here is the whole job rather than the start of it.
- Butterflies, kaleidoscopes and the foil blocks
- The surface is the point and the risk together. Foil and high-gloss finishes take handling marks that cannot be flattened out afterwards, and the colour is what fades first on a lit wall. These are the editions where condition most often decides whether a work is worth consigning at all.
- The HENI series — The Souls, The Virtues, The Empresses
- Published from the later 2010s onwards, and the reason so many owners think something is missing from their sheet. These are typically signed and numbered on a printed label on the reverse rather than in pencil on the front. That is correct for these editions. Photograph the back.
- The Currency
- Ten thousand hand-painted works on handmade paper, released in July 2021 paired one-to-one with an NFT. Holders had until July 2022 to keep one or the other; the works whose owners kept the NFT were destroyed. These are unique works that arrived through an edition-like process rather than prints, and they carry documentation problems of their own — see below.
Where to check an edition
The publisher’s own records are the reference: HENI for the editions it issued, and Science Ltd for the older material and the database behind it. We deliberately do not publish an edition table here. The printed output spans a dozen bodies of work with edition sizes from a few dozen to several thousand, and a partial list assembled from secondary sources would imply a completeness we could not stand behind.
Common questions
How do I work out which Damien Hirst edition I have?
From the inscriptions and the paperwork rather than the image. The title, the edition number, the publisher and the year are what place a work, and depending on when it was published those may be in pencil on the front or on a printed label on the reverse. Photographs of the front, the back and any certificate are normally enough for us to identify it.
There is no signature on the front. Is it a fake?
Not necessarily, and this is the most common false alarm we see. Several of the more recent HENI editions are signed and numbered on a label on the reverse by design. The question is not whether a hand signature is present but whether the work is inscribed the way its edition was issued.
I have lost the certificate. Can I still sell?
Usually yes, but expect it to be harder and for that to show in the estimate. Publisher records, the original invoice and a clean ownership history all carry weight. It is worth knowing that Hirst's company has declined to reissue a certificate in dispute before now — in 2015 the owner of an early spot painting nobody disputed he had made was unable to sell it for that reason — so treat the paperwork as part of the work rather than as packaging.
Is a Currency painting a print?
No. Each of the ten thousand is a unique hand-painted work on paper, even though they were released as a set and paired with an NFT. Collectors who exchanged the NFT for the physical work generally received no paper certificate, and the digital record ended with the exchange, so whatever you kept from the transaction is the provenance. The 2016 date on these works was reported in 2024 to postdate the actual making of at least a thousand of them; Hirst's lawyers said he dates by conception rather than completion. A buyer's advisor will raise it, so have your own record in order.
Who authenticates a Damien Hirst?
There is no standing body of the kind Pest Control provides for Banksy — the Hirst Authentication Committee no longer operates. What a saleroom relies on instead is publisher documentation supported by invoices and receipts, and consistency between the work and its paperwork. Where that is straightforward nothing further is needed; where it is not, establish the position before consigning rather than after.
Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with the artist, his studio, his publishers or any auction house. Nothing here is investment advice.
Send photographs of the front, the reverse and any certificate, and we will tell you which edition you have. What sets the value of a Hirst covers what follows from it, and selling a Hirst covers the sale itself.