Hirst's auction is a hit!

Damien Hirst's Pharmacy restaurant struggled to make ends meet despite its shortlived status as the most fashionable place in town. But after closing 13 months ago the venue's fittings and fixtures have proved an unexpected commercial hit.

The artist has made a remarkable £11 million after hundreds flocked to Sotheby's to bid for the restaurant's cutting-edge interior. Virtually everything was for sale, from salt and pepper shakers and crockery to ashtrays and glassware - all of which went for astonishing prices.

Hirst, 39, was not at the auction but when told the final sum over the telephone he said: "I'm delighted - suddenly my venture is a success."

A private collector snapped up one of Hirst's medicine cabinets for £1.2million. Two of his trademark late Nineties "butterfly" paintings each made £364,000 compared with a pre-sale estimate of £120,000.

Even a set of six quite ordinary-looking restaurant chairs made £364,000. The cheapest lot was a case of house white wine which went for £540. A pair of Martini glasses, estimated at £50, made £4,800 and a set of eight Jasper Morrison egg cups - expected to make only £60 - went for £1,920.

One successful buyer snapped up a set of six ashtrays for £1,800. Daniel Mason, 39, a company director from Kensal Rise, said: "It's way beyond my budget - I didn't expect to be paying anything like that much. But you get caught up in the moment and I'm delighted."

A Sotheby's spokeswoman said: "The prices achieved are simply fabulous, quite unreal. People were queuing around the block to get in. Some lots were selling for 10, 20, even 30 times more than their estimates."

The auction was the idea of Sotheby's expert Oliver Barker, who spotted the fittings being removed for storage as he passed the restaurant on a bus. Hirst, the former "enfant terrible" of British art famed for animals pickled in formaldehyde, set up Pharmacy with PR guru Matthew Freud, Liam Carson of the Groucho Club and property developers Nick Leslau and Nigel Wray in January 1998.

At the time, Evening Standard critic Fay Maschler called it "a prescription for a very nice time".

It immediately ran into trouble with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society over its name, which claimed it would confuse people who were looking for a real chemist. But it attracted a fashionable crowd including Madonna, Damon Albarn, Kate Moss, Kylie Minogue, Helen Fielding and Tara Palmer-Tomkinson.

A year later there was much talk of franchising the operation nationwide, but it came to nothing and Pharmacy was forced to close last September. Hirst called it a "sad day" and like "losing a friend" when he removed his works from the premises.