The article examines the works of leading representatives of the "New British Sculpture" Tony Cragg and Antony Gormley. The relevance of the text is related to Tony Cragg's recent retrospective at the Hermitage Museum. Also it reviews the circumstances of realizing the 2011 exhibition project of Antony Gormley at the Hermitage. The problem is founded on the study of the practice of contemporary sculpture of the last thirty years. The author discusses the relationship of art and design and the role of the financial factors in contemporary art culture. The text is provided with examples of individual theoretical and self-critical statements of Tony Cragg and Antony Gormley. It makes a comparison of the Western European art context and Russian tendencies in this field as parallel trends of creative thinking. Final conclusions formulate the need to revise the criteria of art theory and art criticism from the point of recognition of new commercial art and to determine its role in the culture of our time. Refs 5. Figs 7.