Charles Saatchi, born on 9 June 1943 in Baghdad, Iraq, is a world-renowned art collector and gallery owner. The Saatchi family relocated to the United Kingdom four years later and Charles Saatchi initially made a name for himself as the co-founder of one of the largest advertising agencies in the world, Saatchi & Saatchi.
Saatchi is known for his art collection and is often considered the most influential and powerful collector of the 1990’s. His speculative policy of art collection – buying up an artist’s works wholesale and then reselling the entire set once the artist’s market has increased – revolutionised the way collections are assembled and has influenced a new generation of collectors, such as François Pinault and Adam Lindemann.
Saatchi is strongly associated with the Young British Artists (YBAs) and is credited with having single-handedly discovered the movement and coined the term. He championed the work of artists such as Damien Hirst before they gained international acclaim. In 1985, the collector founded Saatchi Gallery to showcase his collection and announced last year that he would be donating the gallery and two hundred works of art to the British nation upon his retirement.