ABOVE: detail from Till Gerhard’s Das Wir Gefuhl (2004), part of the Saatchi Gallery’s show The Triumph of Painting. It has not been a triumph of real estate: the gallery was evicted by its landlords last weekend.

Charles Saatchi’s feud with his gallery’s landlord came to an abrupt and messy end late last week when the owners of the building, County Hall, won a court hearing to evict the gallery for breach of contract. The gallery had already announced that it was to leave County Hall for a new larger gallery in Chelsea—in 2007. The figurative get-the-hell-out note on the door makes the move a little more urgent. The Saatchi Gallery recently offered a 2-for-1 ticket deal, which the landlord, Shirayama Shokusan Corp, claimed violated the tenant’s agreement.

But that small technicality comes after years of rancour on both sides of the table, with Shirayama Shokusan European rep Makoto Okamoto hurling invective and the equally mercurial Saatchi hurling it right back. The Gallery also apparently did things like park cars on the steps of the building as installation art, which Okamoto wasn’t informed of ahead of time. Tit for tat, Okamoto changed the locks on the gallery’s disabled washrooms, which spawned another fight. Boys will be boys; millionaire boys, doubly so. It’s unclear exactly how much time Saatchi & co. have to vacate the premises, and their space in Chelsea is not ready to move in. A page on the gallery’s website makes reference to the new locale, but details are sketchy—or, shall we say, fauvist.

LINK: The Guardian > Saatchi Gallery gets its marching orders

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