The Saatchi Gallery

You know when you give something away to make you feel good, it's (in my case) usually because I didn't like the thing I was giving away in the first place. Like a very expensive gray leather cowboy hat (I'm making this up) that you bought on holiday a few years ago. Just looking at your purchse makes you miserable! So you give it away and sort of feel good about yourself.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Charles Saatchi has the same feelings about his art collection, he is gifting more than 200 works and his Saatchi Gallery to the British public. The gallery is a very impressive building and contains art claimed to be worth £25m ($37.7m).

Tracey Emin's My Bed, 1998

On the face of it, it seems to be a very generous gift, but have you seen the collection? Unfortunately, Saatchi, for all his money, hasn't built up a collection worthy of a gallery. He championed Tracey Emin's bed, New Neurotic Realism??? and A lake of reflective oil. There is some good stuff, I remember seeing Jenny Saville at his old Gallery in St John's Wood, but in general the collection is patchy.

I foresee another problem with the gift and that is the name change from the Saatchi Gallery to the Museum of Contemporary Art for London (Moca London). Having seen the MOCA in LA the Moca London, doesn't look too impressive. Just my thoughts.