“ …credits him with more than £100m, which Hirst confirmed 18 months ago was about right; others think his value is more in the region of £500m and the outcome at Sotheby’s is peanuts to him. He is so wealthy, claim his friends, that he has spent £100m on art in the past nine months alone. His spree began with a £16m Francis Bacon self-portrait at Sotheby’s New York last Novembe
