According to artnet News, a recent study of Hirst’s formaldehyde sculptures has determined that several of the art works were leaking noxious gas when they were installed at the Tate Museum in London for a Hirst retrospective in 2012.
[T]he levels of the carcinogenic chemical around the cases were at five parts per million, which is ten times higher than the recommended limit, as reported by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The works that were found to be “leaking” were Mother and Child (Divided) (1993), of a severed mother cow and calf, and Away from the Flock (1994) featuring a lone lamb.
Hirst, who recently opened the Newport Street Gallery to showcase his own collection as well as the works of artists he admires, has had a rough go of it for the last few years. As Edward Docx wrote in a recent issue of the New Republic, Hirst’s “career thus far has been a downhill slalom of provocation and pound signs.”