A tiger shark suspended in a glass tank of formaldehyde, one of the best known works by contemporary British artist Damien Hirst, is to go on display in New York next month, officials said Friday.
"The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living," created by conceptual artist Hirst in 1991, is to go on display in The Metropolitan Museum of Art from the end of August, the museum said in a statement.
The almost four-meter (13-foot) shark in the sculpture is not actually the original animal, which was replaced last year by the artist during a "refurbishment" made necessary because the original shark was decomposing.
The 22-ton sculpture is on a three-year loan from its owner, Steven Cohen, who bought the piece in 2004 for a reported eight million dollars -- one of the highest prices paid for a piece of contemporary art at the time.
"Damien Hirst's iconic shark will be an arresting sight in the Metropolitan's modern art galleries," Philippe de Montebello, the museum's director said in a statement.
"It should be especially revealing and stimulating to confront this work in the context of the entire history of art, an opportunity only this institution can provide," he said.
Hirst, 42, is the best known member of the "Young British Artists," who first made their presence known in the early 1990s.
The shark installation -- dubbed in Britain from its outset as the "pickled shark" -- was originally bought by gallery owner Charles Saatchi in 1991 for 50,000 pounds (today around 100,000 dollars).
Another work by Hirst last month became the most expensive artwork by a living artist ever sold at auction.
"Lullaby Spring" -- a three-meter wide steel cabinet containing 6,136 hand-crafted and individually-painted pills -- sold for 9.65 million pounds (19.2 million dollars) to an anonymous collector.
