The artworks made from gold, diamond dust and amber

What makes an artwork expensive? Maybe it is a rare, highly sought-after survival like the Salvator Mundi. Maybe it was created by a world-renowned artist. Auction prices are largely driven by market forces. Some artists, such as Picasso or Andy Warhol, will always be hugely popular — and, therefore, fetch high prices. Other artists go in and out of fashion. Damien Hirst, once the highly sought-after enfant terrible of the art scene, has, according to reports, seen declining demand and prices in recent years. Although there are other factors at play, auction value is often underpinned by limited supply. Hirst’s market oversaturation may have contributed to a decline in comparison with his peak values.

In some cases, however, it’s not who made the artwork but what it is made from that makes it expensive. From diamond dust to sheets of caramel-coloured amber, luxurious materials have been used for centuries in the creation of art. We round up five artworks that are made from some of the most expensive materials in the world.

For the Love of God — Damien Hirst

For the Love of God by Damien Hirst, 2007

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Created in 2007, this piece features a lifesize platinum cast of a human skull completely encrusted with 8,601 perfect diamonds, making it one of the most intrinsically expensive artworks ever created. It is composed of 1,106.18 carats of diamonds, including a massive, 52.4-carat pear-shaped pink diamond squarely set in the centre of the skull’s forehead — one way to bring out the third eye. Reports suggest that the sculpture cost Hirst as much as £15 million to produce — precisely because of the pricey materials involved. On its initial display, the skull was valued at £50 million, which would have been a record price at the time. Hirst’s work starkly juxtaposes the skull — a traditional symbol of mortality — with opulent materials, providing a provocative rumination on the meaning of life.

Reigning Queens — Andy Warhol

This series, created by Andy Warhol in 1985, features screen prints of four queens who were on the throne at the time: Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, and Queen Ntfombi Twala of Swaziland. Using vibrant colours and his iconic pop art style, Warhol reinterpreted official portraits for the 16-work series (four prints of each queen). A “royal edition” was also released, for which diamond dust was mixed with the paint. This added an opulent lustre and slight relief effect, as well as being a playful nod to the regal status of the “sitters”. These were not the first works for which Warhol had used the technique. He had already experimented with it for some of his earlier portraits, such as a 1980 image of the German artist Joseph Beuys. In this case, the “diamond dust” was ground glass, which produced more sparkle than real diamonds.

Abundance — Lindy Lee

Abundance by Lindy Lee, 2024

BRENDON THORNE/GETTY IMAGES

The Australian precious metal services conglomerate Pallion Group commissioned the artist Lindy Lee to create a sculpture using AUS$10 million (just over £5 million) worth of pure bullion gold. Lee crafted the gold into a hollow horn — perhaps to recall a cornucopia, symbol of abundance — that curls back into itself. Thousands of carefully placed perforations of different sizes catch the light, as if constellations in the night sky, and the gold surface is richly tactile. The resulting sculpture weighs a mere 50kg. Owned by the Pallion Group, Abundance will go on permanent display at the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra).

The Amber Room — Andreas Schlüter and Gottfried Wolfram

The Amber Room c 1931

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA CRUZ. MCHENRY LIBRARY, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Known as the “Eighth Wonder of the World”, the Amber Room was made in the 18th century from six tonnes of amber mounted on gold leaf for Frederick I of Prussia. The ambitious plan to create panels of amber meant that the craftsmen had to invent new and experimental ways of working with the material, often referred to as the “gold of the north” for its value, to make it pliable enough. The resulting panels would have been worth an estimated £240 million in today’s money. Moved to the Catherine Palace, the summer residence of the Russian royal family at Tsarskoye Selo near St Petersburg, in 1716 as a gift for Peter the Great, the room was renowned for the opulence of its materials and the translucent beauty of the design, until it was looted and lost during the Second World War. A replica, commissioned in 1979, took two decades and more than £8 million to produce.

Maestà, central panel — Duccio di Buoninsegna

Maesta by Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1308-11

ALAMY

Amber may have been the gold of the north and gold may be, well, gold, but a certain blue mineral was once more expensive than both of them. Lapis lazuli, a semi-precious stone, has been used since antiquity as a pigment — colouring everything from clothes to pottery. By the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, its deep blue tone was used to adorn countless frescoes, panel paintings and manuscripts. The rarity of the stone (found principally in what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan) as well as the labour-intensive process needed to grind the rock into powder meant that at the time it often cost more than gold. In paintings such as the 14th-century Maestà by the Sienese artist Duccio, lapis lazuli’s rich ultramarine was used for the Virgin’s cloak, symbolising divinity and honour through the depth of colour and cost of the raw material.