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British ad mogul donates artworks

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The British advertising tycoon and art collector Charles Saatchi is donating more than 200 modern works AND the Saatchi Gallery in London to the British government. Anchor Katy Clark speaks with Richard Cork, art critic for The Times of London.

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KATY CLARK: While British sports fans are biting their nails over tomorrow’s Wimbledon semi-finals, Londoners got a gift today. A 40 million dollar gift. The art collector Charles Saatchi is donating more than 200 modern works and the Saatchi Gallery in London. Richard Cork is the art critic for The Times of London. Richard, this is a pretty interesting collection. The artworks being donated include one artist’s famous re-creation of her bedroom, complete with empty liquor bottles, condoms and cigarette butts. Another piece of art is a room filled with oil. What else is the British public getting here?

RICHARD CORK:  Well, what it’s getting is a pretty outstanding collection of British art that was made over the last 20 years. You mention the bed. It’s a notoriously crumpled, filthy bed that Tracey Emin made. It’s kind of an [INDISCERNABLE] work and I think a lot of the other pieces in the Saatchi collection have a similar standing. But it’s interesting that we don’t quite know what it contains because he’s a collector who’s still buying with as much appetite as he ever did.

CLARK:  Well, this just seems like something that’s too good to be true. Do you have any idea why Charles Saatchi would do this?

CORK: It’s completely out of the blue. I had no inkling that Charles Saatchi was about to bestow his collection upon the nation. But he has done and I can only presume it’s because he wants in some way to make that collection and the beautiful building that houses it somehow a sort of permanent memorial to his own astuteness as a collector.

CLARK: Well, obviously these are pretty touch financial times. Can the British government decide at some point down the road to sell off that unmade, dirty bed we’re talking about for a couple hundred thousand dollars or do they have to keep the collection?

CORK: Well, that’s a very key question that you’re asking and the answer is that I presume that Mr. Saatchi and the British government will now be undertaking delicate negotiations, as they say in diplomatic circles. And it’s down to him really whether he insists that none of these works be sold in the future. We have a wonderful museum in London called the Wallace Collection which was given to us on the understanding that nothing could ever be sold and indeed that nothing could ever be lent to another museum anywhere else. So, donors can in fact lay down very, very strict conditions if they so wish.

CLARK: Richard, do you have a favorite in this collection of Saatchi works?

CORK: Yes, I think you already mentioned this extraordinary oil installation that Richard Wilson made way back in the late 1980s. It’s been in all the Saatchi galleries over the years and everybody who enters this room and finds him or herself surrounded by a massive expanse of real oil.

CLARK: Engine oil. This is a display of engine oil thrown around the room?

CORK: Absolutely and it really is very impressive and, of course, with the BP furor at the moment still echoing around us, it takes on a whole other meaning doesn’t it as well?

CLARK: Well, speaking of controversy, Mr. Saatchi is a controversial figure in the art world. He made him money as one of the founders of the Saatchi & Saatchi advertising agency. Here’s British artist Charles Thomson speaking about Mr. Saatchi’s taste in art.

CHARLES THOMSON: It’s like instant hit, but no content, no depth. He describes himself as a neophiliac which is a lover of the new and loving the new is not a criterion for judging art. You have to look into the depth rather than just the novelty factor. So we’ve got a collection of novelties. It’s a kind of cultural equivalent of Legoland.

CLARK: Richard Cork, is the British public getting an artsy version of Legoland here?

CORK: Well, obviously I don’t think so. In recent years Charles Saatchi has been spreading his collector’s urges very, very wide indeed. He’s been introducing the art of many, many different countries to London, some of which we know very little about and we’re on a learning curve with Saatchi. We’re about to have a special exhibition of art from Korea and I’m sure we’re going to discover a lot of new things there. It’s good for the British actually to be confronted by an international collector who doesn’t have any kind of national boundaries limiting his vision.

CLARK: Richard Cork is the art critic for The Times of London. Thank you for your time.

CORK: You’re welcome.

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