Damien Hirst in a pickle over his iconic shark

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London (dpa) - Damien Hirst, Britain's best-known artist of the "Britart" movement of the 1990s, is in a pickle over what to do with his most famous conceptual work - a tiger shark now rotting away in a tank of formaldehyde.

The Art Newspaper, based in London, reports in its July issue that Hirst is in talks with the work's new owner, American hedge-fund millionaire Steve Cohen, about replacing the shark with a fresher specimen before it disintegrates.

Cohen bought the work of art for 6.5 million pounds (11.7 million dollars) two years ago and questions are now being asked about whether the iconic installation is still worth its price.

According to The Art Newspaper, the five-metre-long tiger shark, suspended in a tank of formaldehyde, is deteriorating rapidly because of the way it was originally preserved by Hirst.

The 41-year-old artist, often described as the "enfant terrible" of contemporary British art, has also created a sheep in formaldehyde, and is known around the world for his dot paintings.

The sheep sculpture, entitled "Away From the Flock Divided" was bought for a record-breaking 1.8 million pounds (3.4 million dollars) by an American art dealer at auction in New York in May.

Hirst, who won the prestige British Turner Prize in 1995, is reported to have a fortune of more than a 100 million pounds.

After a wild and drug-filled existence in London through the 1990's, Hirst has now settled with his American wife and two sons in rural Devon, south-west Britain.

Experts said Wednesday that Hirst, while injecting the shark with formaldehyde, had not used enough of the substance for such a large fish.

For long-term protection, it would have been better to use an alcohol-based solution, experts from London's Natural History Museum suggested.

The solution is now murky and the shark is showing considerable signs of wear and tear and has changed shape, the reports said.

Frank Dunphy, Hirst's business manager, said about its possible replacement: "It is something that we are in discussions about. It's something that probably will happen."

The installation - Hirst gave it the title "The physical impossibility of death in the mind of someone living" - was created in 1991.

The shark, originally commissioned from Hirst by his promoter, art collector and gallery owner Charles Saatchi, for 50,000 pounds.

The fish, caught by a comissioned fisherman in Florida, remained the centrepiece of Saatchi's collection - on show at his two London galleries - until it was sold to Cohen.

When he purchased the shark, Cohen was reported to be planning to donate it to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Rumours there have suggested that the museum turned it down because of its condition.

Its condition highlights growing alarm over how to preserve the high-priced conceptual works, many made from organic materials, poor quality paint, junk and even blood and insects, produced by Hirst's Young British Artists movement.

If the shark substitution goes ahead, it will also raise serious questions about what is an original work of art, and whether changing parts of it devalues it.

Art critic Martin Gayford said: "My take on it is to ask whether you regard the piece we are talking about as a work of art or as an idea.

"If somebody completely painted over a Rembrandt, it wouldn't be the same thing. But the shark constitutes an idea plus the way it's presented.

"It seems to me that if Hirst finds a new shark and has it pickled and it looks right to him then that's fine," said Gayford.

In an admission about the longevity of some of Hirst's works, Science, the company the artist runs to help him make his installations, said in a statement to The Art Newspaper: "Damien will happily help to refurbish the shark as he would with any of his works that are over ten years old."

Larry Gagosian, owner of the Gagosian Gallery which brokered the sale to Cohen, told The Art Newspaper: "Steve Cohen is very happy with the piece and is not troubled at all with having to substitute it. It doesn't affect the significance of the piece or the value of the piece."