Tracey Emin's infamous art installation 'My Bed' is to go onsale via a Christie's auction for the purportedly bargain guide price of between £800,000 and £1.2 million. Whilst not exactly a pocket money purchase for most of the population, the price has been reportedly criticised for being too low for the British artist's seminal work.

Tracey Emin
Tracey Emin's Famous Art Installation 'My Bed' Will Be Auctioned Off By Charles Saatchi.

'My Bed; currently belongs to the noted art collector and former husband to Nigella Lawson, Charles Saatchi, who purchased the work from Emin for £150,000 after they met in a Mayfair café in 2000. Saatchi last year announced his decision to trim his collection by putting in place plans to auction 50 of his largest sculptures and installations.

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The large sculpture depicts a bed that Emin claims to have spent a week in after a bad break up. Complete with vodka bottles, tampons, dirty clothing, cigarette butts and pregnancy tests, the shocking installation didn't win the 1999 Turner Prize, having lost out to Steve McQueen, whose exhibition included footage of a tape recorder drifting off beneath a balloon and a house collapsing.


The artist has since distanced herself from the once very personal scene depicted by 'My Bed.' The last time she unpacked her exhibition in Frankfurt, she spoke of her detachment from the piece, saying "I mean, I don't smoke any more. I don't think people see it as shocking any more either," via The Guardian.

Emin's artwork has always been extremely divisive but the 50 year-old is nevertheless credited with having generated a frenzy of attention which boosted visitor numbers to the Tate Britain to record levels at the time.

Tracey Emin South Banks Sky Arts Awards
The Artist Has Distanced Herself From The Very Personal Scene Depicted In 'My Bed.'

Regarded as one of the country's most prominent modern artists, Emin rose to fame and notoriety from the Young British Artist movement of the 1990s alongside the likes of Damien Hirst.

Proceeds from the sale will apparently go to support the Saatchi Gallery's policy of free entry to exhibitions and its free education programme for schools.

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