London’s White Cube gallery announced that British artist Damien Hirst diamond-encrusted skull sold for $100 million dollars, a record price for work sold by a living artist. The work is entitled "For the Love of God," and is a skull cast in platinum and encrusted with 8,601 diamonds. According to the gallery a group of anonymous investors purchased the work. The investment group plans to resell the work later. Sara Macdonald, a spokeswoman for the gallery said, “Hirst is keeping a stake in the skull. It is the intention of the investment group to resell the sculpture at some stage in the future but I cannot provide a time scale for this or estimate the value that the work will be sold for.”The skull is made of platinum and has 8,601 diamonds. It cost $20 million to make the skull (diamonds and fabrication). The purchasing group will be required to send the skull in tour to galleries and museums all over the world. The platinum skull, studded with 8,601 diamonds, was on the market at least since June 3, when it went on show with other Hirst works at Jay Jopling's White Cube. A sale is being completed at the $100 million asking price, with three to four weeks of paperwork left, Frank Dunphy, Hirst's business manager, said on Aug. 29, declining to identify the investors. The plan to resell the skull indicates Hirst hasn't yet found a final buyer for his most expensive artwork, at a time when hedge fund managers and other art collectors have lost money in the credit markets. The artist's participation in the temporary buying group may provide a clue to how the full $100 million sale price was achieved. The skull cost $20 million to make, including diamonds and fabrication, according to Dunphy. "The sale keeps Hirst in the news, reinforces the demand for his work and makes everyone who spent money at White Cube feel good about their investment,"said California private dealer Richard Polsky. "This is all about investment, not about art collecting."Hirst was "retaining a participation to oversee the global tour," spokeswoman Macdonald said. Asked if White Cube also had taken a financial stake in the skull, she said, "Not that I'm aware of."White Cube said it sold 130 million pounds ($262 million) of other Hirst works at the June show. His auction record of 9.7 million pounds -- the highest for a living artist at auction -- was set in June at Sotheby's, when a telephone bidder bought a pill cabinet, ``Lullaby Spring.''