A PIECE of Damien Hirst artwork showcasing empty tablet boxes from a High Wycombe pharmaceutical giant is set to go under the hammer for £120,000.

But the company says if they become popular, it could consider selling them too and a lot cheaper than Mr Hirst's work.

The wood and glass cabinet which is entitled Ahaaa, is set to be auctioned at Sotheby's in London on Thursday.

The exhibit contains two packets of Cytotec, made for Searle, whose office is in Lane End Road, High Wycombe.

The prescription-only pills, which are for the protection of the stomach lining, cost £11.14 a packet.

Phil Greenhalgh is the site administration director for the company, now called Pharmacia and says they could easily make up the cabinets themselves.

He said: "We are refurbishing offices at the moment and doing a lot of throwing out, and we have quite a lot of cabinets.

"If it is worth £120,000 I can arrange for some empty packets and I can even put them in there personally."

A spokesman from their head office in Milton Keynes said they would not be interested in buying it either.

She added: "From our perspective we could not afford or justify it."

A pharmaceutical assistant at Lloyds Chemist in London End, Beaconsfield, said she was shocked that a collection of empty pill boxes could go for thousands of pounds. She said: "It is not even an antique. What sort of person would want it?

Damien, 36, who is renowned for his controversial art featuring a preserved cow, used eight pill bottles and 26 empty tablet boxes for the work. The cabinet measures about 30 ins by 17 ins and was put together in 1997.