When San Francisco megacollector Kent Logan took delivery on young British artist Tracey Emin’s The Hut, which he purchased last year for $40,000 from New York gallery Lehmann Maupin, he had an unpleasant surprise: His installation crew couldn’t figure out how to put the work, which had been dismantled for shipping, back together. The gallery refunded Logan his payment in late May, then resold The Hut last week – this time for $112,500, to London’s Charles Saatchi, who apparently has an easier time with instruction booklets. It’s the second major Emin work Saatchi has purchased from Lehmann Maupin: In April, he bought My Bed for $197,500. Emin, notorious for works like Psycho Slut that draw on her own intimate life stories (My Bed comes complete with soiled sheets and used condoms; The Hut is a decrepit beachside cottage she vacationed in with friends), has sold almost 100 works over the past year in the U.S. for an estimated $750,000. She’s used the proceeds to buy herself a real home in the East End of London.
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