CHARLES SAATCHI has angered the parents of a dead heroine addict by buying and exhibiting a macabre portrait of her just as police are about to exhume her body to investigate the cause of her death.
A “shock art” portrait of Rachel Whitear is to be exhibited in public within hours of the exhumation.
The family of the dead woman were said to be “churned up and devastated” by the painting which depicts their daughter with blood pouring from her mouth.
In the portrait, Rachel, that will show in the exhibition New Blood at the Saatchi Gallery in London, Ms Whitear is dressed as a schoolgirl.
Detective Chief Superintendent Paul Howlett, leading the inquiry for Wiltshire Constabulary, called on the gallery to change its plans.
He said: “My understanding is that it is intended this piece will be exhibited next week, which will coincide with the exhumation of Rachel’s body.
“This is clearly extremely distressing for Rachel’s parents and family and I hope that the gallery will respond in a sympathetic and positive manner.”
Mr Saatchi bought the artwork by Stella Vine, a former stripper who was the focus of controversy for her picture of Diana, the Princess of Wales, for £600. Ms Vine admitted the picture was “grotesque” and that the dead woman’s parents may not understand why she chose to paint it. “If anything, I should think that Rachel’s family will believe that I gratuitously exploited her image,” she admitted .
“I’m sad if that’s how they feel, but I know that isn’t how I painted it. It comes from love and from passion and I’m not going to stop making art.”
A spokeswoman for Herefordshire Police, who have been in close contact with with the family, added: “This is absolutely distasteful and quite unnecessary. The family have gone through enough at the moment without having this thrust at them.”
Ms Whitear’s parents, Pauline and Mick Holcroft, will be at the graveside of their daughter when her body is lifted from the ground next week for a post-mortem examination to be carried out.
Ms Whitear, 21, had been trying to beat her heroin addiction when her body was found slumped in a kneeling position with a syringe in her hand. Photographs of her body in her flat in Exmouth, Devon, after her death on May 12, 2000, were used in an anti-drugs campaign.
She was assumed to have died of an overdose but a blood sample revealed that there was too little heroin in her body to have killed her. An open verdict was recorded by a coroner and her death, originally investigated by Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, is being re-examined by Wilt- shire Constabulary.
The exhumation at St Peter’s Church, Withington, near Hereford, and the post-mortem examination are being undertaken to find clues that may have been missed.
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