Critics all at sea over Damien Hirst’s sunken treasures

You can say this much for certain about Damien Hirst — he doesn’t do low-key and his latest exhibition is no exception.

Who can forget his The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living — a 4.25m-long tiger shark immersed in formaldehyde in a clear display case? Loved and hated in equal measure, Hirst’s work always generates headlines.

Hirst’s latest exhibition, Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable is no different. Enormous in scale, it is spread across a Venetian palace — the Palazzo Grassi on the Grand Canal and city’s former custom house, the Punta della Dogana. It has been seen as an effort to kickstart a career that has suffered since the global economic downturn in 2008.