Abundance

This female "bird head" figurine matches the style of artefacts found in the Indus Valley, one of the earliest civilisations in northeastern Afghanistan and Pakistan. The gold sculpture seems to have been originally designed to be moved, or even carried by hand, but it now rests on a two-tiered bronze base. Stripped of its ritual function, the object is now devoted to pure aesthetic pleasure.

Abundance, a sculpture largely covered in "coral", seems to have come straight up from the depths of the sea: legend has it that it was retrieved from the hold of an ancient ship found in 2008. Damien Hirst, the real artist, draws on ancient cultures from around the world to create works of historical fantasy.

Abundance was presented for the first time by the Pinault Collection during the 2017 exhibition "Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable" at the Palazzo Grassi.