A Tale of Saatchi

Charles Saatchi is selling his collection of hyper-realist sculptures by Ron Mueck. For the shrivelled old man, Dead Dad, which was a star of the 1997 Sensation exhibition, he is asking more than 1 million pounds. The price reminds me of a conversation I had with Saatchi at his County Hall gallery. As he showed me round and we paused to contemplate Dead Dad, he told me how he first saw a work by Mueck in the studio of his mother-in-law, painter Paula Rego. Mueck, who was a simple model-maker, wanted a few hundred pounds for it. But Saatchi told him he was an artist and should charge more. He gave him 3,000 pounds, then persuaded leading London dealer Anthony d'Offay to give him an exhibition. At the show in 1998, four works were priced between 10-20,000 pounds, and Saatchi bought two of them. They were the last works by Mueck that he bought. "Why?" I asked. "They became too expensive," he sighed. For the full story - click the title Irish Art