Saatchi takes on the Turner

Charles Saatchi, the multi-millionaire advertising mogul and doyen of the contemporary British art scene, is to launch his own version of Tate Britain's Turner Prize.

In a move likely to antagonise the Tate and its director Sir Nicholas Serota, Saatchi is planning to award a £40,000 ($119,000) prize to an outstanding British artist each year, twice the sum lavished on the winner of the Turner.

The prize is expected to be unveiled officially this year at the launch of his most ambitious venture yet, a 3700sq m gallery designed to house his 3000-piece collection of modern art.

Situated barely a kilometre from the Tate Modern along the south bank of the Thames, in County Hall, the former Greater London Council headquarters, it will showcase some of the most notorious works of recent times.

Highlights will include an opening retrospective for Damien Hirst, featuring Hymn, the 6m anatomical doll he sold to Saatchi for £1 million ($2.97 million) and the "pickled" shark, sheep and cow that first made his name.

Permanent fixtures will also include at least one of Tracey Emin's unmade beds and a theatre for performances by the Old Vic.

Saatchi's decision to launch an alternative to the Turner, a prize he dismissed as "claptrap", will be seen as an act of extraordinary vanity by a man who more or less single-handedly launched Brit Art.

His ability to spend huge sums acquiring works by obscure artists has catapulted relative unknowns to fame. Last year, he spent an estimated £2 million ($5.95 million) on new pieces, equivalent to the Tate's entire annual acquisition budget.

His attempt to upstage the Turner Prize will especially anger the Tate, which for some years has been struggling to retain its status as the primary custodian of contemporary British art.

The gallery has neither the resources nor the authority to buy anything without consulting its trustees and raising donations. As a result, it is relatively barren of work by many of the biggest names in contemporary art, while Saatchi has acquired almost the entire oeuvres of some young British artists. Reaction was mixed to news of the prize, which some wags are already calling "the Charlie".

Sir Nicholas was outwardly sanguine. "I don't think there's a feud," he said. "He's showing the things in his collection, whereas we are about celebrating the whole of contemporary British art. If there are more prizes for art in this country, that's no bad thing."

The art critic Brian Sewell dismissed the latest venture as further proof of what he called Saatchi's "infantile enthusiasm".

"I think there's genuine passion with him," he said. "He is unaware of his ignorance and therefore he uses all his money and his inadequate taste to buy things.

"It's got to the ridiculous stage where people are buying up things just because they were once owned by Charles Saatchi, not even because of who the artist is.

"He will storm into an end-of-year show and buy up everything by a complete unknown. He should be taken very seriously."

Tim Marlow, editor of Tate Magazine, said: "The only thing wrong is that there is only one of him. If anything, we need more people like him."

The elusive collector, who lives with TV cook Nigella Lawson, was unavailable for comment, but sources confirmed he has been "talking about" the prize venture.

- INDEPENDENT