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saatchi art burnt in Leyton fire of Momart warehouse
Reviews

From: Reporter
Category: Exhibitions
Date: 26 May 2004

Review

Fuck! he must have said when he heard all his great Emins and Chapmen and the like had been burnt to a crisp in this god forsaken eastern warehouse. Was it an insurance job or a disgruntled artist or other? Will it lead to Saatchi buying a whole new load of great stuff with the money? Questions like smoke rise in the sky.

We can judge the value of something by how much we miss it when it's gone. One common formula for what we care about, is what we'd save in a fire. Would M.Saatchi or anyone have run into the burning building to rescue the Chapmen's hell made up of tiny little toy nazis in a lavish diorama? I feel only the slightest bit upset by the destruction of all this art. And I quite liked some of it, and like art in general very much. When the Taliban blew up those Buddhas it made me want to cry, perhaps the deliberateness or ideology added to the effect, but... Imagine a warehouse of Picasso's and Matisses or even Pollocks going up in flames. Art has definitely got worse in the last 30 years by the standards of loss evaluation.

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