The Queen’s composer has attacked the “dumbing down” and commercialisation of the arts, singling out Damien Hirst for criticism. Sir Peter Maxwell Davies said that bankers, politicians, educationalists and religion were the causes of the problem.

But it was Hirst’s record-breaking £111 million auction at Sotheby’s last month that the composer used as an example of what was wrong with the arts today. The Master of the Queen’s Music – and one of the foremost composers of his age – dismissed Hirst works such as The Golden Calf – a bull in a tank of formaldehyde, which fetched £10.3 million – as “manufactured artefacts without content”.

In a speech to the conference of the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters, Sir Peter said: “We can all learn from a recent auction of art as an instantly recognisable iconic commodity, where it has become part of the entertainment industry, crossed with investment banking. The artist had the wit to sell a golden calf and other bejewelled trinkets, but all creative artists, in whatever branch of the arts they work, must ponder the implications of so much money scrambling after manufactured artefacts without content – with just a brand tag supposed to guarantee market value.

“It reminds me of the Liberace museum in Las Vegas, where the great man’s tatty stage costumes are exhibited, each with a fabulous price tag, and we are supposed to be uplifted. There are, of course, interesting visual artists out there, but this auction pantomime reflects the reductio ad absurdum of an art world where the principles of the market reign supreme.”

Hirst declined to comment.

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