Editing Momart (section)

== 2004 warehouse fire ==

In the early hours of 24 May 2004 a fire broke out at the Cromwell industrial estate in Leyton, east London. According to the fire investigation report, the flames that caught between 1.45 am and 3.15 am that morning were started deliberately, after burglars broke into a unit located at the extreme south-western corner of the estate and leased to an individual business repairing consumer electronics.

The fire spread through the adjoining units at the estate, eventually reaching and destroying a warehouse then operated by Momart.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/may/27/thebritartfire.arts1|title=50 years of British art lies in ashes|last=Higgins|first=Charlotte|last2=Dodd|first2=Vikram|date=2004-05-27|website=The Guardian|language=en|access-date=2018-05-01}}</ref> The blaze destroyed more than 100 works by some of Britain's leading contemporary artists including Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, Gary Hume, [[Jake and Dinos Chapman]], Helen Chadwick and others.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3748179.stm|title=Fire devastates Saatchi artworks|date=2004-05-26|access-date=2018-05-01|language=en-GB}}</ref> Many of those works were owned by [[Charles Saatchi]], the country's biggest collector of modern art.<ref name=":0" />

Art industry insiders noted at the time that the insurance value of the works lost in the fire would be many times their initial purchase price, and that a comparable rise could be expected in the market values of the remaining and future works by artists whose works were lost. The total value of artworks lost was estimated at between £30 and £50 million.

A number of artists, in a joint action with several insurance firms, alleged negligence and pursued a legal case against Momart. The case was settled out of court in a mediated agreement for an undisclosed fee, reported to be in the order of  "tens of millions of pounds".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://plone.unige.ch/art-adr/cases-affaires/warehouse-fire-2013-gillian-ayres-et-al-and-momart|title=Warehouse Fire – Gillian Ayres et al. and Momart – Centre du droit de l'art|website=plone.unige.ch|language=en|access-date=2018-05-01}}</ref>