The New Saatchi Museum…Er, Gallery

So is Charles Saatchi’s new gallery in competition with the big London museums? “The press has made so much of the supposed rivalry. I’m looking forward to working with the two Tates and the Hayward. Where we differ is that we will always be able to remain at the cutting edge of new art because we can buy and sell, and we’re not answerable to taxpayers or to the idea of a national collection. We’re about contemporary art – that’s to say of the past 20 or so years – not modern art. Our job is to showcase new British art, and to act as a springboard between art colleges and major museums. We’ll always be changing the collection, sometimes gradually, at others quickly. And we don’t plan ahead. Only once a show is up will we think about what the next one might be.”