Jeff Koons, Anish Kapoor, Jasper Johns, Sam Taylor-Wood and Antony Gormley are among the leading artists to accept Damien Hirst's invitation to contribute to The (RED) Auction to help fight HIV/AIDS in developing countries.

Hirst asked them to contribute works inspired by the colour red. Bono calls the results 'the best collection of art from the best artists in the world'.

"What we raise from this auction will make a huge difference for a lot of people." Hirst told The Independent. "For a relatively small amount of effort on each artist's part we can actually save many lives. It's great to be able to give something back and make a difference."

Hirst has contributed seven works including a red heart-shaped butterfly painting entitled All You Need is Love, a red rectangular butterfly painting entitled Love You and a pill cabinet entitled Where There's a Will, There's a Way, which is filled with HIV antiretroviral drugs for the treatment of HIV.

"I love art for art's sake but what we have here is a real moment in art history," said Bono, adding that Hirst's 'Where There's a Will, There's a Way' " provides the neatest, completest metaphor: a pill-becomes-art-becomes-a-pill, that's as close to framing saving a life as you're going to get."

The sale, at Sotheby's New York, will be preceded by a preview exhibition at Gagosian Gallery from February 4th.

Story in The Independent here

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