Hirst's shark heads for US

An iconic exhibit that put Britain on the contemporary art map will leave the country after a £7million deal.

Damien Hirst's tiger shark suspended in formaldehyde has been sold by gallery owner and art magnate Charles Saatchi to an anonymous American collector.

It will be donated to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where it will reside alongside other landmark works by Picasso and Van Gogh.

The sale will be a blow to Sir Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate Modern, which in November turned down Mr Saatchi's offer to donate his entire £200million collection, including the shark.

It led Mr Saatchi to accuse the gallery of lacking 'an adventurous curatorial ambition' and having little interest in 'Britain's recent artistic achievements'.

Hirst's 4m (14ft) shark, entitled The Physical Impossibility Of Death In The Mind Of Someone Living, won him a Turner Prize nomination in 1992.

The exhibit was bought by Mr Saatchi for £50,000 and kept in his North London gallery. It sparked the Brit Art movement, which included Tracey Emin's unmade bed and Chris Ofili's elephant dung portrait of the Virgin Mary.

New York banned another Hirst work ten years ago. Health officials warned his rotting cow and bull would 'prompt vomiting among visitors'.