Feud with 'petty' landlord drives Saatchi to move his collection

[emad]

Feud with 'petty' landlord drives Saatchi to move his collection
By Jack Malvern

A bitter dispute made life at County Hall so unbearable that the gallery will relocate to Chelsea


CHARLES SAATCHI is to move his gallery out of its South Bank headquarters after a bitter dispute with his “malevolent” landlord.
The art collector’s decision to move his multimillion-pound collection from County Hall to a new venue in Chelsea came after an “endless campaign of petty unpleasantness” from Makota Okamoto, who runs the property.

It is the culmination of a row that began more than two years ago when Mr Okamoto allegedly kicked a Gavin Turk sculpture of a homeless person in a sleeping bag because he objected to its presence in the hallway outside the gallery.

Six months earlier Mr Saatchi and his wife, Nigella Lawson, had hosted a spectacular opening party featuring naked human beings as exhibits, after spending millions setting up the Saatchi Gallery.

But relations began to sour after Mr Okamoto, European head of the Shirayama Shokusan corporation, which bought County Hall for £60 million in 1993, allegedly swore at staff who queried his use of entrances to the gallery.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,172-1801103,00.html

[emad]

1. Good. Bottom of the Thames might be a suitable place for all his

tat, including that Hirst pickled sheep and Tracy Emin's unmade bed, complete with used tampax and assorted toenail clippings....

[davidinalameda]

2. that's a shame

it's a great building

just saw it a few weeks ago while in London

[Taxloss]

3. The owners of County Hall have been making a big nuisance of themselves

lately. First the London eye, now this.

Here's a modest proposal. Move Saatchi's modern art collection to City Hall, which is suitably modern. Meanwhile, move London's government back to County Hall. Making sure to first clear out all the tourist-trap Trocadero-wannabe crap.

Sorted!