They also wore tall hats with Saatchi's face on, and Thomson was photographed inside the gallery opening, wearing a T-shirt with the words "Saatchi the Stuckist". Other UK demonstrations Trafalgar Square The Stuckists demonstrated in 2001 in Trafalgar Square, when Rachel Whiteread's statue, Monument, was unveiled. This was a resin cast of the fourth (vacant) plinth in the square, and was inverted on the existing plinth. It represents the type of conceptual art that the Stuckists strongly oppose. The statue was unveiled by the then-Culture Secretary, Chris Smith, against whom Thomson was standing in the 2001 United Kingdom general election as a Stuckist candidate. At this point Stuckist protesters (one of whom was Stella Vine) in the watching crowd held up protest placards. Thomson jumped over the metal crowd barrier onto the now-vacant podium and used the PA system to make an address about the complete absence of paintings in that year's Turner Prize (referring to a comment by Smith the previous year that there should be more paintings in the Prize). At the same time he held up a placard, which read, "Mr Smith, do you really think this stupid plinth is a work of art?" When the PA system was switched off by an official, Thomson made his way back through the crowd and was surprised to find that an angry Serota had followed him. Serota: "That was a cheap shot, using another artist's work to promote your ideas." Thomson: "It's Dada." Serota: "So that gives you the right to do whatever you want to do whenever you want to do it?" Thomson: "You and a few people like you control the art world and what goes on in it, and as artists this is the only way we can put our point of view across." (At this point Serota walked off.) Thomson: "That was Sir Nicholas Serota, the director of the Tate Gallery. Three cheers for Sir Nicholas." The Stuckism website headed its report on the incident with a quote from Serota's book Experience or Interpretation: "a willingness ... to risk offence by unexpected confrontation can yield rewards" The Death of Conceptual Art In 1999, the Stuckists art group had declared themselves "opposed to the sterility of the white wall gallery system", and, three years later, they opened their own Stuckism International gallery (with coloured walls) in Shoreditch in an adjoining street to the White Cube gallery,