Beginning with the hand-painted works made in 2016, The Currency is Damien Hirst’s most recent evolution of his iconic Spot Paintings. The project tests the fault line between art and value: when a work of art can function like money, and when money, through belief, scarcity and consensus, becomes art.

Collectors who successfully applied first received their work as an NFT, then had one year to choose: keep the NFT, or exchange it for the physical painting. Whichever version they rejected was destroyed. The decision window closed on 27 July 2022. In total, 4,851 holders chose to retain the NFT, while 5,149 opted for the physical artwork, completing a 10,000-piece body of work.

In September 2022, The Currency exhibition opened, presenting all 10,000 works together. Over the course of the show, the 4,851 physical paintings corresponding to NFTs were gradually burned in public, turning the act of choice into part of the artwork itself, and making scarcity not just a concept, but a visible event.