Are the Diamonds Real?

Are the Diamonds Real? This question comes from seeing images of the skull (For the Love of God) by Damien Hirst. It strikes me that the greatest irony of this piece would be for the diamonds to be fake. It is interesting that according to one report I have heard, the sale of this piece for about 50 million (UKS) is "shrouded in mystery". Maybe because the diamonds are fake. Under-pining this is a question about the art within the piece. To my mind it does not really work if the diamonds are real. Why make them real? Art is artifice. The point about art is that it should hit us at an angle. "For the love of God" suggests many things about the time we live and the times before. Money, greed, the inevitability of death, various religious connotations etc. but if the skull is also about the notion of something being fake when it is presented as being real then I think it becomes more interesting. An art critic who shall remain nameless wrote about the experience of seeing and being close to the skull. His words reflected a rather grotesque slavishness, not to the art or the artist but to the money ostensibly built into this piece. For my money, I hope it is a fake.