Has anyone else picked this up?

The Art Newspaper, in a roundabout way, reported that the Saatchi Gallery has been evicted from its space on the South Bank. The Saatchi had closed earlier and reopened to much fanfare in 2003 in the County Hall building across the Thames from Parliament and Big Ben. Research reveals BBC broke the story back in October, but this is the first Art or Idiocy? has heard of it. (Searching artblog kingpin Modern Art Notes yielded no hits on the subject either.)

Gregor Schneider • Mann mit Schwanz/man with cock, Rheydt • 2004
• cast, mixed media (silicon, trousers, shirt, garbage bag)
• 21 x 186 x 70cm • from the Saatchi collection

The Triumph of Painting exhibition, which seems to have sequels with each new two-page spread in Artforum, is on hold. A highlights show is on view far to the North in Leeds. Damien Hirst is from Leeds, and the Who played live in Leeds once. The North of England has much the reputation that the South has here in America. The highlights show is unrelated to the eviction.

According to The Art Newspaper, Saatchi has had a falling out with his Japanese landlord, and this has led to the eviction. It seems kind of odd that owner of County Hall in London would be Japanese and not the city, or the government. In true Saatchi fashion, the gallery has already procured a new site, The Duke of York’s HQ in Chelsea. The website already has a virtual tour of it and Saatchi is scheduled to reopen “in about a year.”

For the full story, back from Oct ’05, click here.

Saatchi Gallery site