When it opened in 1998, the Pharmacy epitomized London chic. Everything in this Notting Hill restaurant -- from the butterfly paintings and glass-fronted medicine cabinets to the aspirin-shaped bar stools and match boxes illustrated with surgical tools -- was designed by Damien Hirst, a leading member of London's Young British Artists. For nearly six years people from all over the world flocked to the Pharmacy to ogle the celebrity regulars like Kate Moss, Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise.
In September the Pharmacy closed, a victim of its own trendiness. ''It was a slow death,'' Mr. Hirst said in a telephone interview. ''People gradually stopped going.''
But unlike most closings, this one is expected to generate money. Sotheby's announced on Monday that it planned to auction the entire contents of the Pharmacy on Oct. 19 for an expected total of more than $5.5 million.
It is surprising that virtually everything from the Pharmacy still exists. After it closed, Mr. Hirst put it all in storage. Like many in the London art world, he chose Momart, one of whose warehouses in the East End had a fire in May that destroyed millions of dollars worth of art by Mr. Hirst and other Young British Artists. The things from the Pharmacy were stored in a building separate from the fire, and nothing was harmed.
''It all could have gone up in flames,'' said Cheyenne Westphal, head of Sotheby's contemporary art department in Europe. ''When we heard about the fire we held our breath.'' At the time she and her colleagues at Sotheby's had discussed the sale with Mr. Hirst, but no contract had been signed, Ms. Westphal said.
The decision to sell at auction was not easy for the artist. ''I thought long and hard about it,'' Mr. Hirst said, ''and finally decided it was best to do it all in one big hit.''
For months, he said, dealers had been coming to him, wanting to cherry pick. He even had offers from people who offered to create a kind of restaurant-museum. ''It's not like it's only art,'' he said. ''But there are 10 butterfly paintings, so maybe people will be able to get them cheap.''
Winner of the 1995 Turner prize, Mr. Hirst, 39, is known for shocking viewers with works that include dead animals. Among his best known are rotting cows positioned to simulate copulation; sharks and sheep preserved in formaldehyde; maggots attacking a cow's head; medicine cabinets full of hundreds of bottles and boxes of drugs; paintings of colorful dots and swirls; and canvases with real butterflies on them.
For years his work has been eagerly bought by museums and collectors around the world, and many of the best paintings have brought upward of $400,000 at auction. In November a glass-front cabinet full of animal skeletons sold at auction for $1.1 million, a record for the artist at auction.
Sotheby's has purposely timed the sale to coincide with the Frieze Art Fair, which specializes in contemporary art. It plans to publish a special catalog recording the history of the Pharmacy and to recreate the feeling of the restaurant at its New Bond Street galleries in the hope of creating a feeding frenzy in the international contemporary art world.
''It will give people a chance to see the Pharmacy one last time,'' Ms. Westphal said.
''The sale will include something for everyone,'' she added. There will be paintings with estimates of over $550,000 as well as objects expected to sell for under $100. A group of 10 of the artist's much-loved butterfly paintings, each with a bright color background and each with love in the title, are estimated to fetch over $110,000. The auction will also have 11 of his well-known medicine cabinets and a molecular model sculpture with estimates each from $183,360 to $275,000.
There will be the aspirin-shaped bar stools (estimated at $920 to $1,200 for six) and glass cone-shaped hanging lamps ($5,500 to $7,300 for eight; $550 to $740 for one). A pair of martini glasses with a snake wrapped around each stem is estimated at $92 to $128 for the pair.
''The martini glasses are prototypes,'' Mr. Hirst said. ''They became too expensive to make.
The dishes, white with the restaurant's logo and signed by the artist, will be in the sale too. A set of 12 are estimated to bring $9,000 to $13,000. A set of eight glass egg cups, also with the Pharmacy logo, will go for $73 to $110. Mr. Hirst produced about 60 different designed match boxes. Some of these will be auctioned too, but Sotheby's officials said they had not priced them yet.
''Everybody these days wants branded objects,'' said Tobias Meyer, director of Sotheby's contemporary art department worldwide. ''The Pharmacy represents a moment in time when the London art world was at its peak.''
From the time it opened, the Pharmacy was as much fodder for gossip columnists as it was for restaurant critics. Inspired by a pharmacy installation the artist made in 1992 that is now in the permanent collection of Tate Modern in London, the restaurant looked so much like a drugstore that people often came in with prescriptions.
''A woman once asked me for an aspirin, and I had to say I'm sorry we have a strict no drug policy here,'' Mr. Hirst recalled.
Shortly after it opened, the restaurant ran into legal trouble when the Royal Pharmaceutical Society threatened a lawsuit saying the name was confusing for people who were looking for a real drug store. The name was temporarily changed to Army Chap, an anagram of Pharmacy.
The restaurant's ground floor had a bar full of Mr. Hirst's glass-fronted pharmaceutical cabinets. The windows were stained glass etched with pill patterns, and the staff wore uniforms designed by Prada and inspired by surgical gowns and lab coats. (None of the uniforms still exist.)
Mr. Hirst's decision to sell the contents of the Pharmacy is surprising because he is one of the few artists who collect their own work. In November he and his dealer, Jay Jopling, bought a group of about 12 seminal pieces for a reported $15 million from Charles Saatchi, the advertising magnate who is one of his biggest collectors. Mr. Hirst said that he has kept one of his molecular sculptures.
When he thinks of the Pharmacy, Mr. Hirst said, ''it makes me think of failure.'' But he is still involved in the restaurant business. He recently opened a small fish restaurant called the Quay in Devon, England. ''I will be putting art in there soon,'' he said. He also plans a restaurant in Mexico.
''When I have something to celebrate, I always celebrate with food,'' Mr. Hirst added. ''Someday I'd like to open a world class restaurant.''
