The owner of the Development Construction Holding (DCH) and FC Metalist, the general investor and coordinator of the preparations of Kharkiv for the Euro 2012 European Football Championship, Oleksandr Yaroslavsky, and the owner of Group DF Dmytro Firtash have made a charitable contribution of EUR 1.75 million at an auction of the Damien Hirst painting In Love.
This took place at a charitable dinner organized by the Olena Pinchuk ANTIAIDS Foundation for the 42nd U.S. President (1993-2001) Bill Clinton at the InterContinental Hotel in Kyiv on October 3. As reported, Clinton visited Ukraine at the invitation of Victor and Olena Pinchuk.
The foundation will transfer the money contributed in flat amounts by the businessmen, for purchase of HIV/AIDS express-tests, which provide accurate diagnoses for patients, and for expending a joint project of two foundations in Ukraine.
In Love is a heart-shaped yellow-colored painting 214/214 in size. Hirst presented this work to the ANTIAIDS Foundation for free. Businessman Victor Pinchuk thanked Yaroslavsky and Firtash and added that their contribution to the fight against "the epidemic of the century" is "a new step in the history of Ukrainian philanthropy." The businessmen plan to pass the painting to a Kharkiv childcare establishment, so that junior Ukrainians could become familiar with recent achievements in world art.
Hirst has been known at the world art stage since 1990s. In December 2004 the U.S. collector Steve Cohen bought the artist’s painting The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, for $12 million. In 2007 the artist established another price record by creating one of the most expensive modern sculptures For the Love of God worth $100 million – a platinum skull, incrusted by 8,601 diamonds and with human teeth.
In addition, Hirst actively supports charity. Earlier, he presented his painting Dark Days to the Victor Pinchuk Foundation. The painting was sold for 300,000 British pounds Sterling, which were transferred to the foundation’s "Cradles of Hope" project.
