Supercollector: A Critique of Charles Saatchi

A detailed examination of the advertising mogul and art collector Charles Saatchi, a man who is estimated to spend 2 million a year buying contemporary art, displaying it in his own gallery in north London and, famously, at the 'Sensation' exhibition which opened at the Royal Academy before touring to Berlin and the Brooklyn Museum, an event that provoked an extraordinary clash between art and politics. Regarded by many as a modern Medici, Saatchi exercises tremendous power in the international contemporary art market. He can make and break artists' reputations, and he has had the power to define the character and direction of recent British art. Surprisingly, this is the first book to look at Charles Saatchi as art collector. While it quotes a range of opinions, the book is primarily a critique written from a socialist standpoint, applying ideas derived from a number of sociologists including Marx, Moulin and Veblen.