Damien Hirst's Summer Media Blitz

We still may not know what really went down with the sale of Damien Hirst's diamond-encrusted skull, but one thing's for sure:

Hirst is one of the greatest self-promoters the art world has ever seen, and he's been especially busy this summer.

The artist's name has been prominently positioned in every media outlet, from blogs (including this one) to venerated newspapers, for the better part of three months now. His sensational jeweled piece for an exhibition of new work at White Cube in London went on view in June. In July, there were the announcements that he had designed the spring / summer 2008 collection of Levi's Warhol Factory X label and that the Met would show his pickled shark as a long-term loan made by its owner, hedge fund manager Steve Cohen. And then August, of course, brought a flurry of reports that the skull had sold to a group of investors for $100 million, a story whose shelf life has extended into September, with speculation that the purported sale may have been a ploy to avoid admitting that no one would buy the ostentatious memento mori for considerably more than the price of an island in French Polynesia.

We'll get the first look at Hirst's complete collection for Levi's on the catwalk tomorrow night, the halfway point of New York Fashion Week. But the models won't walk down the runway in one of the tents set up in Bryant Park. They'll be showing off Hirst's vision inside the white walls of the artist's dealer, Larry Gagosian, in the Chelsea art district.