Free entry to new Saatchi gallery after sponsor deal

More details of the new Saatchi gallery in London have emerged over the weekend, with a sponsorship tie-up involving design art auction house Phillips de Pury.

The auction house, which has established its first London headquarters in Victoria, SW1, has, according to reports, agreed to be a sponsor of the Saatchi gallery, so that entry for visitors will be free.

The Saatchi gallery, which was previously located at County Hall, Westminster, will be re-housed at the Duke of York’s barracks, off the King’s Road in Chelsea.

It is understood that the new gallery will be dramatically different from the County Hall gallery, which critics said was unsuitable for contemporary art, with its small rooms and dark wood paneling.

The new gallery, with ‘large well-proportioned rooms and high ceilings’, will occupy the entire 6500m2 building, giving the gallery scope for a book shop, educational facilities and a café/bar.

Allford Hall Monaghan Morris has been confirmed as the architect working on the exterior and interiors of the main gallery, while Paul Davis & Partners is working on the basement.

The gallery is scheduled to open in late spring, though no official date has yet been confirmed.

Its first exhibition will be The Revolution Continues: New Chinese Art, showing more than 100 pieces by 30 contemporary Chinese artists.