When, in 1998, Doris Lockhart Saatchi was asked to put together her own fantasy art collection as part of a fundraising drive, her choices raised eyebrows in the art world.
Lockhart Saatchi’s name, with that of her ex-husband, the advertising guru Charles Saatchi, had become synonymous with the Young British Artists (YBAs) – a term newly applied to a group that had first shown together a decade previously. Rather than selecting Damien Hirsts or Tracey Emins, though, Lockhart Saatchi, who has died aged 88, chose Simone Martini’s Uffizi Annunciation, from the 14th century, together with works by Francisco de Zurbarán and Nicolas Poussin. The only modern paintings on her list – commissioned by the National Art Collections Fund (NACF, now the Art Fund) for a lecture series – were Andy Warhol’s Triple Elvis and a canvas by the American minimalist Brice Marden.
