FLOAT 100 · Art · No. 70
The Virtues – Politeness (H9-4)
In one week in 2021, collectors around the world told Damien Hirst how many of each cherry blossom print to make, and Politeness came out on top with 1,549 copies, the biggest edition of the eight and now one of the most traded Hirst prints there is.
- Year
- 2021
- Maker
- Damien Hirst
- By price in art
- 77 of 100
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Create a free account- Artist
- Damien Hirst (born 1965)
- Made
- 2021; sales window closed March 3, 2021
- Series
- The Virtues (H9), eight cherry blossom prints named for the virtues of Bushido; this is H9-4
- Medium
- Laminated giclee print on aluminum composite panel
- Size
- 120 x 96 cm (47 1/4 x 37 3/4 in)
- Edition
- 1,549, the largest of the eight Virtues
- Signed
- Hand-signed and numbered on a label on the back
- Publisher
- A London art publisher that works closely with Hirst
- Auction appearances
- 55 sales at auction, by one market tracker's count
A print made to order by the public
The Virtues went on sale in late February 2021. Instead of fixing the edition size in advance, the publisher left it open: anyone could apply during a one-week window, and each print would be made in as many copies as people ordered. The window closed at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time on Wednesday, March 3, 2021, and delivery was promised for mid-May.
When the counts came in, the eight prints had wildly different editions: Justice 1,005, Courage 760, Mercy 817, Politeness 1,549, Honesty 728, Honour 693, Loyalty 1,067 and Control 862. Politeness was the clear favorite. It was also the first print series for which both Hirst and his publisher accepted payment in cryptocurrency.
One dealer's announcement of the release gives the price as 3,000 dollars per print before VAT; other dealer guides give the same figure in pounds. Each print was hand-signed and numbered on a label on the back.
Cherry blossoms and Bushido
The prints come from Hirst's Cherry Blossoms paintings, a series of 107 canvases made between 2018 and 2020 in his London studio. They mix thick brushstrokes, spots and spray paint, with soft pinks set against bright blue skies, in a style that one Paris guide described as somewhere between pointillism, impressionism and action painting. Hirst has called the blossoms a picture of the momentary, insane transience of beauty.
Hirst has said he was enchanted as a child by a cherry tree outside his bedroom window, and that he watched his mother paint blossoms when he was three.
The eight titles are the virtues of Bushido, the samurai code, as set out by the Japanese writer Nitobe Inazo: Justice, Courage, Mercy, Politeness, Honesty, Honour, Loyalty and Control. Politeness, in Nitobe's account, means respect and consideration for others.
Paintings in Paris, prints in lockdown
Hirst made the series in the shadow of the pandemic: The Virtues were created during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, and released while the original paintings were still waiting for their public debut.
The Cherry Blossoms paintings finally went on view at the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris from July 6, 2021, to January 2, 2022, more than four months after the print orders closed. The Virtues were also the first Hirst print series that could be paid for in cryptocurrency.
How to recognize H9-4
Each of the eight Virtues is a slightly different cherry blossom landscape, all at the same size of 120 by 96 cm, printed and laminated onto an aluminum composite panel rather than paper. H9-4 is titled Politeness.
A genuine example carries Hirst's signature and an edition number out of 1,549 on a label on the back, along with the publisher's certificate. One example sold in January 2024 was number 1368 of 1,549 and had been bought directly from the publisher.
In the market
With 1,549 copies, Politeness is the most widely held of the Virtues and appears at auction constantly. One market tracker counts 55 sales at auction and six in the past 12 months. Over the past five years its hammer prices have ranged from £5,327 in April 2025 to £18,739 in March 2023.
On January 10, 2024, number 1368 sold at auction in Los Angeles for $16,380 against an estimate of $10,000 to $15,000. Complete sets of all eight Virtues also trade; the publisher's own secondary-market listing offered a full set for $140,000.
The numbers
- Medium
- Laminated giclee (pigment) print on aluminum composite panel
- Dimensions
- 120 x 96 cm (47 1/4 x 37 3/4 in)
- Edition
- 1,549, set by public demand during a one-week application window
- Series number
- H9-4 of the eight-print Virtues series
- Source paintings
- Cherry Blossoms, 107 canvases, 2018-2020
- Current collection
- Edition; examples are in private hands
Timeline
Hirst begins the Cherry Blossoms paintings in his London studio.
Hirst completes the series of 107 Cherry Blossoms canvases.
The Virtues, eight cherry blossom prints, are released with an open edition size.
The one-week application window closes; Politeness ends with an edition of 1,549.
Delivery of the prints is scheduled for mid-May.
The Cherry Blossoms paintings open at the Fondation Cartier in Paris.
The Paris exhibition closes.
Politeness reaches its five-year high hammer price of £18,739.
Number 1368 sells for $16,380 at auction in Los Angeles.
Politeness records its five-year low hammer price of £5,327.
The world in 2021
Supporters of President Donald Trump attack the U.S. Capitol.
Myanmar's military seizes power in a coup.
NASA's Perseverance rover lands on Mars in Jezero Crater.
The container ship Ever Given runs aground in the Suez Canal, blocking it for six days.
NASA's Ingenuity helicopter makes the first powered flight on another planet.
The delayed 2020 Summer Olympics open in Tokyo.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 10, 2024 | $16,380 | Sold at auctionNumber 1368/1549, acquired from the publisher by the seller; sold at auction in Los Angeles against an estimate of $10,000 to $15,000. |
A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.
By reference price, The Virtues – Politeness (H9-4) is number 77 of 100 in the art entries of the FLOAT 100. 88 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (70 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- No one decided the edition size in advance: it was set by how many people applied during one week in 2021.
- Politeness drew more orders than any other Virtue, more than twice as many as Honour.
- The Virtues were the first prints for which Hirst accepted payment in cryptocurrency.
- The titles come from the samurai code of Bushido as described by the Japanese writer Nitobe Inazo.
- Hirst says he watched his mother paint cherry blossoms when he was three years old.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 3, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026