Hirst shark swims to New York

Damien Hirst's infamous pickled shark is ready to bite the Big Apple.

The 14ft tiger shark, suspended in a tank of formaldehyde, will be installed in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art from September for three years.

Last year Hirst replaced the shark after it had decomposed because of the way in which it was originally preserved.

Hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen bought the shark - The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, to give it its full title - for £6.5 million from Charles Saatchi in 2004.

Mr Saatchi commissioned the work from Hirst for £50,000 in 1991.

The Met's loan deal with Mr Cohen has raised eyebrows in New York as the museum is renowned for its antiquities and European painting masterpieces rather than for conceptual art.

Arts observers had forecast that Mr Cohen would be lending the shark to New York's Museum of Modern Art.

Gary Tinterow, the Met's curator in charge of 19th century, modern and contemporary art, said: "It is a significant work of art that arouses intense audience curiosity.

"The piece has cultural relevance. It is a work which epitomises a movement in the 1990s that saw the emergence of a new group of British artists."

He added: "The Met was founded in 1870 to display pieces by living artists as well as those who weren't living and we've been doing that ever since." Mr Cohen said in a statement: "I am very excited that the piece will be displayed at the Met with other art- historical treasures."

Although Hirst himself is not expected to go to New York, representatives from his company Science will work alongside the museum to oversee the 22-ton shark's installation in the modern and contemporary art galleries.

A year after the 9/11 terror attacks, Hirst was forced to apologise for saying in a BBC interview that the destruction of the World Trade Center was "like an artwork" and " visually stunning".