Saatchi Gallery, London
This is an “I told you so” post.
When I skeptically inquired last July whether MOCA London—Charles Saatchi‘s announced gift to Great Britain of more than 200 artworks from his collection (as well as his Saatchi Gallery building}—would definitely happen, Rachel Duffield, the megacollector’s spokesperson, replied:
The gift has definitely been made.
Maybe “offered,” not “made” would have been the more accurate word. Calling the announcement “premature” in my earlier CultureGrrl post, I questioned whether that gift had actually been accepted by its intended recipient. Saatchi’s original July 1 announcement had hedged, stating that the Saatchi Gallery was “in discussion with potential Government departments who would own the works on behalf of the nation” [emphasis added].
Now Farah Nayeri of Bloomberg reports:
Charles Saatchi, who in July said he
was giving the British nation his London gallery and more than
25 million pounds ($38 million) worth of art, is seeking other
takers after talks with a state-linked body broke down, his
gallery’s associate director said….Saatchi Gallery Associate Director Rebecca Wilson said talks with Arts Council England, which manages the funding
of cultural bodies on the government’s behalf, had ended.
Wilson told Bloomberg that those talks had ended on July 23, only about three weeks after the “gift” was announced. Other possible recipients have since been approached.
As to the reasons for the impasse, Tom Peck of the London Independent reports:
It is not clear why the talks failed, but it is understood that the idea
of part-financing the institution after it had been handed over by
buying and selling items from the donated collection runs against the
code of ethics set out by the Museums’ Association.
Other problematic aspects of the proposed gift, to my mind, were the utter lack of any operating endowment and the implied challenge posed by the new museum to the other public institution in London dedicated, in part, to contemporary art—the Tate Modern (currently trying to engineer its own expansion).
Speaking of implied challenges, it appears that there already IS a MOCA London in London! Doesn’t adman Saatchi respect the sanctity of brand names? Maybe (as I suggested in my July post) this collector-centric institution should be more accurately (and non-competitively) named: “London Museum of Saatchi Art.”
UPDATE: I’ve just heard directly from Rebecca Wilson, who ignored my detailed questions and issued the same statement already quoted in the above-linked Bloomberg article.