Scenes from a frenzy: just two years after ital-ian artist and notorious prankster Maurizio Cattelan made "The Ninth Hour" in 1999, Geneva dealer Pierre Huber bought the life-size wax sculpture of Pope John Paul Ⅱ being felled by a meteorite for $886,000. On Nov. 18 he flipped it at a Phillips auction in New York for $3 million. In Sotheby's first single-owner, living-artist sale, on Oct. 18 in London, British bad boy Damien Hirst—known for works ranging from shocking sharks in formaldehyde to decorative dot paintings—grossed $17 million for 50 or so items he designed for Pharmacy, his defunct London eatery and chic celebrity hangout. At the sale martini glasses estimated to sell for $90 to $125 brought $8,650. And a set of six Jasper Morrison dining chairs from the restaurant inspired one anxious buyer to call out "￡10,000!" when bidding had only just reached ￡2,500. Talk about auction fever.
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