The art dealer/philanthropist Anthony d’Offay, who gave his £200m art collection to the nation and created Artist Rooms a touring exhibition which has had an audience of over 30 million is being investigated by the Met Police over allegations of sending malicious emails to a former employee. The incident also raises concerns about inappropriate behaviour towards two other women in the 1990s -2004. Some were also former employees.
The Sunday Observer broke the story on 14th January and republished it on the Guardian Online website. The following quotes are extracted from the article.
In another incident a woman stated, “I felt very uncomfortable about the fact that I was in the park alone with Anthony d’Offay. ‘You are being very cruel by not reciprocating my feelings.’ My first reaction was to laugh, ‘You’re married and in your 60s – this is ridiculous.’ “I needed to get out of the park, but he lunged at me with his mouth open. I was in disbelief. I pushed him away and shouted, ‘No, Anthony, absolutely no!’ “He laughed and said that I needed to surrender to him and in time I would. I did not feel I could tell anyone about this because he was one of the most powerful men in the art world,” The Guardian Online revealed.
Born in Sheffield to a French father, Anthony d’Offay was only 25 when he opened his first tiny gallery near Piccadilly. Within a year he had sold a drawing by Jean Cocteau to Paul McCartney, and he launched a new gallery near Bond Street in 1969. He helped revive the reputations of Wyndham Lewis and Stanley Spencer, and in the year his gallery closed it hosted exhibitions of Ron Mueck, Anselm Kiefer and Bill Viola. For 15 years he organised mostly historical exhibitions of early 20th century British art including Abstract Art in England 1913-1915 (1969) which critically reassessed the importance of the Vorticist movement in the UK. In the 1970s, he started to show contemporary art, exhibiting Lucian Freud, Michael Andrews, Eduardo Paolozzi, Frank Auerbach and William Coldstream. The gallery in London made many distinguished exhibitions by some of the greatest artists of our time including Willem de Kooning, Carl Andre, Maurizio Cattelan, Lawrence Weiner, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein, Gerhard Richter, Jannis Kounellis, Anselm Kiefer, Richard Long, Bruce Nauman, Gilbert & George, Richard Hamilton, Brice Marden, James Turrell, Rachel Whiteread, Sigmar Polke, Cy Twombly, Ron Mueck and Andy Warhol, who he commissioned to make the celebrated ‘Fright Wig’ Self Portraits.
D’Offay stated to the Observer on Sunday: “I am appalled these allegations are being levelled against me and I categorically deny the claims being made.” He added that “if there is a police investigation, then police time is being wasted”.
*All quotes concerning Anthony d’Offay were extracted from the Guardian Online.