As Peter Watson has remarked, “Saatchi is clearly someone with a gargantuan appetite for buying art—but maybe his chief fault lies in the fact that he is doing so when … there is little contemporary art to buy.[1] Of course, it is hardly Saatchi’s fault if there is a shortage of quality art, but it is certainly the case that by buying so much he is bound to acquire many bad and mediocre works of art. The situation is complicated by the fact that some contemporary artists deliberately set out to make “bad” art. It then becomes difficult to distinguish between good “bad” art and bad “bad” art.

From Rita Hatton and John A. Walker’s Supercollector: A Critique of Charles Saatchi, London: Ellipsis, 2000, p. 114.

Footnote

1. From Manet to Manhattan: The Rise of the Modern Art Market, London: Hutchinson, 1992, p. 435.