british

Selling at the top of a bubble is fantastic ... if you can pull it off. You look, feel and live like an absolute genius. Former art dealer Anthony d'Offay did this, unloading 725 postwar and contemporary pieces before the art market collapsed, dragged down by a global financial crisis. Timing is everything, and the collection purchased for a mere £26.5 million was valued at an astounding £125 million. Included were Jeff Koons' "Winter Bears," an Andy Warhol hamburger (evidently more expensive than those at Burger Joint) and an Anselm Kiefer palm tree.

D'Offay didn't make a dime.

Rather than sell the collection at a profit of close to £100 million, he sold them to the United Kingdom at cost: £26.5 million. Instead of taking the money, d'Offay chose to be paid with strings ... namely those attached to the deal. The condition of his sale was that the country had to send the artwork on tour throughout the UK, making it easy for people under age 18 to access the art.

D'Offay explains that financial constraints on British museums – which are free and thus have no money with which to acquire new pieces – are great for the people, but not for keeping the walls full with fresh material. On the list for the future is a special room for Damien Hirst's "Pharmacy" installation and has already purchased Hirst's "Painkillers" piece (pill cabinet) for $877,000. In a deal with Hirst, he also picked up work by Koons, and Hirst's new "Necromancer." Hirst was d'Offay's gallery assistant as he was finishing college.

D'Offay's talent, he says, is buying art, rather than curating or creating. He became inspired as a child in northern England when viewing a collection of Francis Bacon (shocking, right? Bacon connection comes back again ...).

Prizes – in art, journalism or anywhere else – are intended to show that a particular achievement exceeds the others in its field. The Turner Prize is a prestigious contemporary art award in Britain is for artists under 50 and has been around for 25 years. Here's the problem: the Turner Prize has always gone to art that sucks. Nobody liked the work. So, this year, a prize that typically has gone to pieces that shock is doing some shocking of its own.

The judges hope that the Turner Prize will go to a creation that people actually like.

The four artists nominated this year aren't as controversial as past entries, but they do bring unusual perspectives. Roger Hiorns is described as a "modern alchemist," mixing a variety of household materials with liquid copper sulphate and an empty apartment to express his vision. Enrico David focuses on the human figure, while Lucy Skaer uses photographs as starting points for drawings and sculpture. Richard Wright, rounding out the list of nominees, works with large wall paintings tailored to the spaces in which they appear.

This work makes a bit more sense than at least one past winner (2001): Grayson Perry, a cross-dressing potter, and Martin Creed had an installation consisting of lights flickering in an empty room. Reaction: one visitor threw two eggs at the wall.

And, of course, Damien Hirst is a past winner, though I struggle to understand why. He's only done one installation that worked for me (a year and a half ago, at the Lever House in New York).

Judge and art critic Jonathan Jones observes, "People say 'my child could do that.' It's not conceivable that you could look at any of these artists (in that way)." He goes a bit too far, however, when he continues, "It shows there is a great deal of talent in contemporary art."

Maybe the Turner Prize will redeem itself in 2009. We'll find out on December 7.

A British chef has concocted what is, essentially, an incredibly expensive cheese on toast. Tom Bridge's version of the usually frugal dish known as rarebit, or cheese on toast, is dressed up with L'Aquila White Umbrian truffles and matsutake mushrooms on top of Warburtons Toastie white bread and Lancashire cheese. The toast and cheese are the ordinary ones that Bridges uses in his home. The asking price is £345, or about $600, and the chance to have Chef Bridge make it for you in your own home will be auctioned off on eBay.

With the Germans in Berlin and the Americans in Hamburg, the British World Cup Team has decided to take up residence high in the Black Forest at the Schlosshotel Bühlerhöhe. The hotel is situated near the Alsatian border in a renovated Baroque-style castle that was built between 1911 and 1914. It is one of the most famous spa resorts in Germany and pumps in its own spring water. At 2,500 feet above sea level, the hotel looks as though it is a castle in the clouds, straight out of a fairy tale. It has 90 guest rooms, all with high speed internet access and television, of course.

The only guests at the hotel for the month that the British football team intends to stay there, from June 5-July 9, will be the Football Association's party of 55 and the BBC staff covering the World Cup.

The pop artist Christina Aguilera has just dropped £25,000 - that's about $43,500 - on a painting by the British graffiti artist Banksy.  The painting shows the late Queen Victoria, who passed anti-homosexual laws and "famously believed women were incapable of being gay", depicted as a lesbian. Victoria, clad in stockings and garter belt, is painted in a compromising position with another woman. Aguilera plans to display the controversial painting in her home.

The painting is after the jump and is possibly not safe for work.