First Name from the Tomb belongs to Damien Hirst’s The Currency, a project comprising 10,000 individually titled works on handmade paper, each paired with a corresponding non-fungible token. Extending the visual language of Hirst’s Spot Paintings, the project examines the systems of belief, scarcity and exchange through which both artworks and currencies acquire value.

Across the sheet, numerous enamel spots are applied in varied colours, their irregular placement creating a field that appears spontaneous despite its repetitive structure. Differences in scale, density and application distinguish the work from every other example in the series. Drips, overlaps and variations in the painted surface retain evidence of the work’s physical production, while the handmade paper introduces slight material irregularities that contrast with the digital uniformity of its associated token.

Each physical work was individually numbered, titled, stamped and signed on the reverse, with additional security devices including a watermark, hologram and microdot. These features deliberately recall the anti-counterfeiting measures found on banknotes, reinforcing Hirst’s comparison between art and money. Although the works resemble mechanically produced prints when viewed collectively, each is a unique painting whose value depends upon its difference within an otherwise consistent system.

Collectors were ultimately required to choose between retaining the physical artwork or its corresponding NFT. When the exchange period ended on 27 July 2022, 5,149 physical works had been selected and 4,851 retained in digital form; the physical counterparts of the latter were subsequently destroyed during a public exhibition at Newport Street Gallery. Numbered 138, First Name from the Tomb survives as one of the physical works chosen for preservation, embodying the project’s central enquiry into materiality, ownership and the value assigned to an original object. A detailed condition report is available upon request.