Tracey Emin’s headline-grabbing, unmade My Bed, 1998 (right)—including dirty knickers, discarded condoms and empty vodka bottles—is being offered for between £800,000 and £1.2m by Christie’s on 1 July.
If the sale is successful, it would make a nice return for its owner, Charles Saatchi (it is being sold to benefit his gallery): he bought the work for £150,000 in 2000, a year after the artist had been shortlisted for (but did not win) the Tate’s Turner Prize. Emin, who says that Saatchi contacted her “a long time ago” to let her know his plans, says that she is “philosophical” about such an “iconic” work being auctioned for “the first, and I hope last, time”. She says that, wherever the work may go, “it’s still my bed; I love it”.
