Charles Saatchi, 2008

Collector Charles Saatchi has decided to stop keeping his opinions to himself. In a recent interview, the former advertising executive lambastes recent work from Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst. “[B]oth of them have been rather off-form for a while and would have done better to show far less from what we will kindly refer to as their mid-career period,” he told Britain’s Telegraph.

Saatchi was an early supporter of both artists, financing Hirst’s sculpture The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1992), which featured a shark encased in a formaldehyde prism. Reports circulated in 2002 that the two had quarreled over the display of Hirst’s work at Saatchi’s gallery. The collector sold off many of the Hirst works he owned a year later, though both attempted to downplay the feud.

Britain’s most famous contemporary art collector also had some kind words to share. “They both have made so much extraordinary work that their position in the pantheon of greats is assured,” he said. Saatchi also defended Hirst’s wealth, comparing it with the pay of Roger Federer, Madonna, and “other superstars.”

Saatchi is currently promoting his new book My Name is Charles Saatchi and I am an Artoholic: Everything You Need to Know About Art, Ads, Life, God, and Other Mysteries and Weren’t Afraid to Ask, out today from Phaidon Press.