Controversial British artist Sebastian Horsley found dead after suspected overdose

The artist and self-styled dandy Sebastian Horsley was found dead from a suspected heroin overdose yesterday just days after a play opened about his debauched life.



The 47-year-old painter and author, who was famously once crucified in the name of his art, was found dead by his girlfriend yesterday morning at his flat in Soho, central London.



Police believe he was killed by a heroin overdose after going on a massive binge following a friend's wake.



See the video below ...

Sebastian Horsley has been found dead from a suspected drug overdose

Friends said the reformed heroin addict, who had been clean for several months, went on the drugs binge after a party at the Groucho Club following the funeral of his friend Michael Wojas, proprietor of Soho's Colony Room Club.



Horsley was said to have been distraught at the death of his close friend, whose club played host to the Soho louche set, attracting the likes of Brit Artists Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and before that Francis Bacon and Peter O'Toole.



Horsley's overdose comes two days after a play, Dandy In The Underworld, based on his own memoir, opened at the Soho Theatre in London.



The play, which Stephen Fry hoped to turn into a film, was said to have flattered and insulted Horsley in equal measure, who said after seeing it: 'I'd rather be crucified again than sit through that.



'I knew I was obnoxious but I never knew how much.'



There was speculation the timing of the opening of the play may have been significant in his death.



Controversial: In 2002 Horsley opened an exhibition with Dennis Morris entitled Crucifixion, for which he crucified himself. See the video below

In one of his final interviews last month, he said: 'It's just a joke, life - it's a whole joke.



'And given that life is absurd, given that it's pointless, given that it's meaningless; to mirror it with an absurdist dance is in many ways taking up a real position. Dandyism is a ghost dance in the face of defeat.'



But friends played down any link to the play, saying: 'All the evidence suggests that it was an accident. He didn't mean to do it.'



The elder son of the late Nicholas Horsley, a former millionaire chairman of Northern Foods, Horsley's memoirs of his extraordinary life of drug addiction, sex, penchant for prostitutes and well-tailored decadence attracted cult status.



He is perhaps best known for being 'crucified' while being filmed.



In 2002, Horsley went to the Philippines to experience a crucifixion in preparation for a series of paintings on the subject.



Refusing painkillers, he was nailed to the cross and passed out. During his ordeal the footrest broke and the flesh on his hands tore.



His memoir - named after an album by his hero Marc Bolan's band T Rex - detailed his upbringing in a rich family in Hull, his father wheelchair-bound and alcoholic and his mother suicidal.

Duality: Horsley saw himself as a mixture of the macabre and the dandy

He married in 1983 but the relationship collapsed and he moved to London where he made a fortune on the stock market and promptly spent it, saying: 'I have invested 90 per cent of my money in prostitutes, the rest on Class A drugs, the remains I squandered.'



In 2007 a London gallery staged a retrospective of his work called Hookers, Dealers, Tailors.



Friends said he was the master of the one-liner, a Soho peacock who was 'vain, arrogant, brash and hilarious'.



In 2008 Horsley was denied entry to the U.S. on the grounds of 'moral turpitude'.



But playwright Tim Fountain, who adapted his memoirs, said: 'Sebastian in print and Sebastian in person were two very different people.



'The real man was one of the sweetest, kindest, funniest people I ever had the privilege of meeting.



'But as Sebastian himself always said, he was hardwired for extremes, and extreme ways of living bring with them great risks as well as rewards. I'm devastated.'



Entrepreneur Ivan Massow paid tribute to a 'great friend' yesterday.



'He was your archetypal dandy who loved people to think the worst of him,' he said. 'He was another larger-than-life Soho figure and it is sad that we are losing these last beacons of insanity.'



His friend Toby Young, the author of How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, said: 'I'm still reeling from the shock. He styled himself an artist, but his true genius was for conversation.



'Aphorisms and one-liners came pouring out of his mouth like gusts of fresh air, blowing away received wisdom and herd opinion like so many cobwebs.'



John Pearse, a friend who owns a shop opposite his apartment, said: 'I am very sad but I am not at all surprised. The whole world knew that he was on drugs.



'He had a very mad lifestyle. His girlfriend Rachel is heartbroken.'



Last night's performance of Dandy In The Underworld was cancelled.



A statement from the show's producers said: 'Over the past six months whilst the play was being developed we all worked closely with Sebastian and struck up a deep affection for the man behind the public persona.



'It was a privilege to work with, and get to know this extraordinary man.'



Scotland Yard said the death was being treated as 'non-suspicious at this early stage'.

