Damien's worthless original

The remarkable career of Damien Hirst continued its heady trajectory last Monday and Tuesday when his auction of new work defied the naysayers and added an astonishing £111m to the shark-pickling artist's a considerable fortune.

Not everything Hirst touches can be turned into gold, however, as Julia Staniforth, a 51-year-old hairdresser from Leeds discovered this week.

Staniforth is the proud owner of an original, early Hirst – a portrait of her sister Joanne's cat, Mindy, painted for her by the artist when he was a lovestruck 17-year-old in 1982. The artist's auctioneers, Sotheby's, however, say that the painting is worthless because it is not in Hirst's trademark style. In other words, the cat is not shown dead, preserved in form-aldehyde, or covered in diamonds or stuffed with a silver dagger through its midriff.

Mindy is long gone, but Ms Staniforth, subject of Hirst's teenage crush, kept the painting as a memento.

"I don't really want to sell the painting because I adored Mindy, but obviously if I got a ridiculous offer it is something I would have to consider," Ms Staniforth said. "Sotheby's think a Hirst original, which he has signed and dated, is not worth anything.

"Mindy died in 1996 and instead of burying her in the back garden I should have had Damien come back and put her in formaldehyde – then I would have had something of value."

Maybe she should just hold on to the painting for a little longer. Hirst is now turning to painting, and if his style is like that of his 17-year-old self then the sometimes unfathomable logic of the art market may bestow a suitably unfeasible price on his portrait of Mindy.