Sensation (art exhibition)

)[3] Many of the pieces had already become famous, or notorious, with the British public (for example, Damien Hirst's shark suspended in formaldehyde titled The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, Tracey Emin's tent titled Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995), Marc Quinn's self-portrait (a frozen head made from pints of his own blood) and Sarah Lucas's explicitly sexual images and sculptures.

[4]The opening of Sensation at the Royal Academy of Arts caused a public furore and a media frenzy, with both broadsheet and tabloid journalists falling over themselves to comment on the show's controversial images, and unprecedented crowds queuing up to see for themselves what all the fuss was about.

They and some members of the public complained about several other exhibits, notably the installations by Jake and Dinos Chapman, which were of child mannequins with noses replaced by penises and mouths in the form of an anus.

Windows at Burlington House, the academy's home, were smashed and two demonstrators hurled ink and eggs at the picture as a result, requiring it to be removed and restored.

The show was extremely popular with the general public, attracting over 300,000 visitors during its run,[8] helped by the media attention which the strong subject matter had received.

[9] Sensation was shown at the Berlin's Hamburger Bahnhof museum (30 September 1998 – 30 January 1999) and proved so popular that it was extended past its original closing date of 28 December 1998.

She claimed that the Berlin audience found the yBa's work "more sad and serious than irreverent, funny and dazzling"[10] The exhibition was shown in New York City at the Brooklyn Museum from 2 October 1999 to 9 January 2000.

The New York City show was met with instant protest, centering on The Holy Virgin Mary by Chris Ofili, which had not provoked this reaction in London.

"[8] Cardinal John O'Connor, the Archbishop of New York, said, "one must ask if it is an attack on religion itself," and the president of America's biggest group of Orthodox Jews, Mandell Ganchrow, called it "deeply offensive".

On 1 November, federal judge Nina Gershon ordered the City not only to restore the funding that was denied to the museum, but also to refrain from continuing its ejectment action.

"[8] The editor-in-chief of the New York City Art & Auction magazine, Bruce Wolmer, said: "When the row eventually fades the only smile will be on the face of Charles Saatchi, a master self-promoter.