Former BritArt bad boy Damien Hirst put on display Friday a diamond-encrusted platinum case of a human skull priced at 50 million pounds. (File Photo)

    BEIJING, June 4 (Xinhuanet) -- Former BritArt bad boy Damien Hirst put on display Friday a diamond-encrusted platinum case of a human skull priced at 50 million pounds (99 million U.S. dollars).

    The skull, cast from a 35-year-old 18th century European male, is coated with 8,601 diamonds, including a large pink diamond worth more than four million pounds in the center of its forehead.

    "It shows we are not going to live for ever. But it also has a feeling of victory over death," Hirst said as the glittering skull was shown to the public for the first time amid tight security at central London's White Cube gallery.

    Hirst, whose art often depict blood and death and range from diced and pickled quadrupeds to bloody depictions of birth, said he was inspired by similarly bejewelled Aztec skulls.

    While the skull is platinum and the diamonds flawless -- and ethically sourced, Hirst stressed -- the teeth are real.

    "It was very important to put the real teeth back. Like the animals in formaldehyde you have got an actual animal in there. It is not a representation. I wanted it to be real," he said.

    Hirst, whose works regularly fetch millions of pounds, said he hoped the skull would not be snapped up by a private buyer and taken away from public view.

    "It would be sad it ends up in a vault somewhere that nobody sees. Obviously I would like it to be on display.

    "If anybody buys it, I would make that part of the conditions," he said.

    (Agencies)