Sunday, 6 October 2002
With its delicately embroidered quilts, curtained surrounds and handsome brass frame, it owes more to Laura Ashley than the excesses of Brit Art. Three years after exhibiting a shabby bed strewn with vodka bottles and condoms, Tracey Emin has unveiled a smart four-poster whose dainty coverlets bear only faint traces of the emotional angst that inspired the original.
With its delicately embroidered quilts, curtained surrounds and handsome brass frame, it owes more to Laura Ashley than the excesses of Brit Art. Three years after exhibiting a shabby bed strewn with vodka bottles and condoms, Tracey Emin has unveiled a smart four-poster whose dainty coverlets bear only faint traces of the emotional angst that inspired the original.
But just days after appearing publicly for the first time in New York, the latest bed is set to become a battleground between the two biggest players on the British art scene. The work, sold to an anonymous buyer for an undisclosed sum last week, is believed to be en route to Charles Saatchi, the millionaire collector and advertising magnate.
If so, it would be viewed as a major lure to his promised "museum of modern art" in the former GLC headquarters on London's South Bank – and a personal affront to his arch-rival, Sir Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate Galleries. It would also be an ideal companion piece to its predecessor, My Bed, which Mr Saatchi bought from Emin for £150,000, and now keeps at the home he shares with the TV chef Nigella Lawson.
Mr Saatchi's suspected coup comes as Sir Nicholas shows signs of mounting frustration at the Tate's inability to compete with wealthy private bidders in the cut-throat salesrooms of the contemporary art market.
In a series of outspoken interviews, the normally publicity-shy director criticised ministers for failing to address the "acute" shortfalls that have left his four galleries with an acquisition fund of just £2m a year.
Last night, the Government, which is understood to be dismayed by his remarks, released figures for the first time showing that the Tate is one of the biggest beneficiaries of tax breaks to encourage landowners to give their works of art to the nation.
Over the past decade, it has used the inheritance tax scheme to obtain items worth nearly £23m, including Turner's The Temple of Poseidon at Sunium for £105,000, and a Millais painting worth £4.2m.
A Whitehall source told The Independent on Sunday: "The scheme is the unsung hero of the arts funding world. It's puzzling that institutions sometimes seem reluctant to acknowledge its benefits for their collections, when discussing their acquisitions."
However, Sir Nicholas, who the Tate insists acknowledges the value of the tax break, is known to have more on his mind than Old Masters. While publicly he will only say he wants to broaden his contemporary art collection, he is known to be infuriated by Mr Saatchi's acquisition of major Brit Art works such as My Bed and Damien Hirst's giant anatomical doll, Hymn. His anger has been compounded by the 59-year-old collector's repeated refusal to loan anything to Tate Modern, leaving it bereft of many of the defining works of Brit Art.
Observers believe that Sir Nicholas, 56, will perceive the "loss" of yet another high-profile Emin work to Mr Saatchi as a call to all-out war.
One prominent fine art journalist said: "I think there's personal animosity between them.
"Nicholas Serota is angry with Charles Saatchi. He's annoyed that Saatchi has some of the biggest works from that particular moment in modern art, and he's not playing ball. He's not willing to lend anything to the Tate."
He added that Sir Nicholas was already plotting to outwit Saatchi over future acquisitions. In particular, he is believed to be negotiating the purchase of Upper Room, 12 paintings of monkeys by the Turner Prize-winner Chris Ofili, loosely based on the Stations of the Cross, from London's Victoria Miro Gallery.
"Victoria Miro wants to sell the piece to a public institution," said the journalist. "Also, a lot of the Brit Art artists have been annoyed with Saatchi for years, because, as well as being a collector, he is a dealer. He's not just in it for the love of art."
Neither Sir Nicholas nor Mr Saatchi could be contacted.
