BBC News
Last Updated: Wednesday, 26 May, 2004, 13:30 GMT 14:30 UK
Fire devastates Saatchi artworks
Tracey Emin's tent titled Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995 was one of the many artworks consumed by the Momart warehouse fire.
Photo: BBC News
The fire in Leyton, east London, started on Monday
More than 100 artworks from Charles Saatchi's famous collection have been destroyed in a warehouse fire. Modern art classics like Tracey Emin's tent and works by Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas and Gary Hume were lost.
Art storage firm Momart's warehouse on an industrial estate in Leyton, east London, has been largely destroyed and small fires are still burning.
A spokesman for Saatchi said he was "absolutely devastated" and the cost was likely to run into millions of pounds. He confirmed that Emin's tent - "Everyone I have ever slept with 1963-95" - and her piece known as The Hut had been lost.
My reaction:
It is sad and certainly a big loss. I regret it most sincerely.
But what to think about the fact that this event, and late 20th century art in general, deserve such low consideration from public opinion? Late modern art and their so-called masters are perceived by the public (and by many artists too) as nothing better than a late-capitalist epiphenomenon. Common people are probably right when they claim against the irrelevance of Mr Saatchi art speculation (the value of most of his "marterpieces" result from an endogamic process of money speculation, exhibitionism and sensationalism) . Another important point: the over rated and scandalous prices paid for so-called Young British Art are beginning to crackle down for good!
I think it is time for Post-Contemporary Art.
It is time for a radically new public open-source and copylet art world.
It is time for new ideas and new technne.
This small tragedy (it is small is is not?) could very well trigger a discussion (as necessary as feared...) about art and globalization in the era of networking democacries. AC-P
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