Artnet has a copy of Charles Saatchi’s upcoming book, My Name is Charles Saatchi and I Am an Artaholic due out in November:

Among the various scandals swirling through his history, he addresses the widespread if gossipy accusation that he “dumped” paintings by Sandro Chia and Sean Scully, damaging their careers, with dispatch, saying “I only ever owned seven paintings by Chia. One morning I offered three of them back to Angela Westwater, his New York dealer, where I had originally bought them, and four back to Bruno Bischofberger, his European dealer, where, again, I had bought those. Chia’s work was tremendously desirable at the time and all seven went to big-shot collectors or museums by close of day.

“If Sandro Chia hadn’t had a psychological need to be rejected in public, this issue would never have been considered of much interest. If an artist is producing good work, someone selling a group of strong ones does an artist no harm at all, and in fact can stimulate their market. As for Sean Scully, I did own about five of his works but as his paintings now sell for $800,000+ at auction, I don’t think it sounds like I’ve destroyed his market completely.” […]

Regarding his treatment by the press, for instance, Saatchi thinks it isn’t fair, but says that “if you can’t take a good kicking, you shouldn’t parade how much luckier you are than other people.” He confesses that moving his museum from the airy spaces of Boundary Road to the small oak-paneled rooms of County Hall was “stupid, stupid, stupid,” and admits, when it comes to his personal collection, that “my house is a mess, but any day now we’ll get round to hanging some of the stacks of pictures sitting on the floor.”