Hirst donates pickled cow, cigarette butt art pieces to Tate

Britain's Tate Gallery revealed on Thursday that British artist Damien Hirst has donated works featuring his pickled cows, dead flies, cigarette butts and seashells to the venue's permanent collection.

It marks the first time Hirst, considered the U.K.'s wealthiest artist, has ever made a donation of his controversial artwork to a museum.

"It means a lot to me to have works in the Tate. I would have never thought it possible when I was a student," Hirst said in a statement.

"I think giving works from my collection is a small thing if it means millions of people get to see the work displayed in a great space."

The multimillionaire artist and former Turner Prize winnerhas donated four pieces from his personal collection:

• Mother and Child Divided, 2007 - One of Hirst's trademark pickled-mammal installations, this piece features a cow and calf sliced in half and preserved in formaldehyde. It is an exhibition copy of his original 1993 work.
• Who Is Afraid of the Dark?, 2002 - One of the first in his series of fly paintings, this canvas is covered with dead flies.
• The Acquired Inability to Escape, 1991 - This early work features a glass case that includes a display of cigarettes and stubs, a lighter and an ashtray.
• Life Without You, 1991 - Another early piece, this installation includes a desk topped with an arrangement of evenly spaced seashells.

Three years ago, Tate director Nicholas Serota called on current artists to make donations to the gallery so that the museum could keep its collection fresh despite its limited acquisitions budget and amid an art market that has seen prices for artwork including by Hirst soar to ever-greater heights.

Hirst was among the two dozen artists who agreed to donate significant works to the Tate.

Officials also said that the four works donated on Thursday are just the first phase of an evenlarger overall gift that Hirst plans to make to the Tate.