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DJ gives Damien Hirst print to charity shop by mistake
Elizabeth Hopkirk, Evening Standard12 Jun 2008
Chris Evans has sparked a gold rush in two quiet Surrey towns after revealing live on air that he accidentally donated a Damien Hirst to a charity shop.
The work, worth tens of thousands of pounds, is a signed print of a Hirst dot painting. It was supposed to go in a box destined for the DJ's new Sussex home that he has bought with his third wife, golfer Natasha Shishmanian.
But instead it went into a box full of cast-offs which Evans wanted his driver - known only as Mark - to drop off at a charity shop.
Evans, 42, told listeners to his Radio 2 show: "When you are moving house some stuff goes in the boxes to stay and some stuff goes in the boxes to go.
"One of the things that went in the boxes to go was a Damien Hirst print signed by Damien Hirst. D'oh! Somewhere in a charity shop in Godalming there's a bargain out there... honest!"
Mark told the show he could not remember if he had taken it to a shop in Godalming - where there are at least eight charity shops - or Cranleigh, 10 miles away.
When his marriage to actress Billie Piper ended in 2004 Evans hired a stall at Camden Stables Market to sell off his possessions.
