BRITAIN: London police are investigating a warehouse fire thought to have destroyed a major swathe of British modern art history, a spokesman said yesterday.
More than 100 works by Britain's leading contemporary artists are feared lost in the blaze, many of them belonging to millionaire collector Charles Saatchi.
Among works thought to have been destroyed are key pieces of the BritArt genre, including pieces by Turner Prize-nominated Tracey Emin and the Chapman brothers.
The fire started in the early hours of Monday at an east London warehouse owned by art storage and transport firm Momart.
Carole Hastings, a director at Momart, whose client list includes the National Gallery, the Tate Modern and Tate Britain, was unable to confirm or deny whether Emin's tent Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995 and Hell, a sculpture by Jake and Dinos Chapman, were among the works destroyed.
Saatchi's collection of contemporary art is one of the world's finest and includes such iconic pieces as Damien Hirst's Pickled Sheep.