Damien Hirst's platinum and diamond skill will be one of the highlights of the first UK retrospective show of the British artist.

The piece, For the Love of God, will be displayed in Tate Modern's Turbine Hall next year as part of the Cultural Olympiad's London 2012 festival.

It will be the first time the platinum skull has been seen in the UK since it was sold for a reputed £50 million in 2007.

The life-sized platinum skull is encrusted with 8,601 diamonds in what is considered to be the most expensive artwork ever created, costing £14 million to make.

"You just want it to be flawless, like a diamond is a flawless. We wanted to put them everywhere," Hirst said of the skull when it was unveiled four years ago.

Chris Dercon, Tate Modern's director, told the Guardian: "We all think we know this work through the media. But if you are actually with the work, and can experience it, smell it, and I shouldn't say this, but touch it – it will be very different.

The exhibition will also include celebrated sculptures from Hirst's Natural History series, including The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991), in which a shark is suspended in formaldehyde.

Sources:

For the love of Damien Hirst: Tate Modern hosts first UK retrospective (21/11/11)

Hirst unveils £50m diamond skull (01/06/07) 

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