Saatchi Gallery Eviction

A gallery belonging to art collector Charles Saatchi will be evicted from its London premises after a court ruled on Friday that the company running the collection had breached conditions of its lease. The High Court ruling ends an unseemly row between Saatchi, one of the world's best known art buyers who championed the hugely successful but controversial Britart movement. Saatchi had already announced he would move his collection to a new site in the south of the capital. Judge Donald Rattee ruled that the gallery had trespassed on parts of the building not leased to it, and that a magazine offer of two tickets for the price of one had breached a lease term whereby it would pay rent based on the gallery's profits. Although the gallery spent 1.2 million pounds refitting the premises, it had "displayed an attitude of deliberate disregard of the landlord's rights". For the full story - click the title Irish Art