In an unprecedented act of philanthropy, the art mogul Charles Saatchi is giving NHS hospitals some of his unrivalled collection of carved-up carcasses and headless animals to cheer up their patients.
If the Chelsea and Westminster hospital in London can overcome its initial misgivings, the most spectacular and expensive Damien Hirst of all, Hymn, a 20ft anatomical model based on a children's toy, will soon grace its huge atrium.
So far, however, the hospital's pioneering art programme has seemed a little squeamish about the statue's lurid single staring eye, and the fact that its innards are on open display.
Susan Loppert, who has used art to help transform the wards, said: "We would love to have it, but we're a little bit worried about the eye. It could be disturbing to some.
"Appropriateness is the name of the game. I would not, for example, have one of Hirst's split-in-half animal cadavers."
The statue reputedly cost Saatchi £1m in March last year, a figure which critics took with a pinch of salt since Saatchi holds the biggest collection of Hirsts in the world and had most to gain from an inflated price.
It is the only major work among £1.25m worth of paintings and sculptures the advertising guru is giving away through the charity Paintings in Hospitals. Ten works, including Carina Weidle's Olympic Chickens, a sequence of fowl decapitations, were politely turned down.
Margaret Thatcher's former advertising guru has lost both his parents in the last year, and there is speculation that the his blossoming relationship with the TV cook Nigella Lawson - whose husband John Diamond died of cancer - may have had a bearing on his bequest. The Royal Marsden, where Diamond was treated, is only half a mile down the road from the Chelsea and Westminster and is also likely to benefit from his largesse.
Yesterday the Chelsea and Westminster said they were delighted with the gifts.
"It is great to see that our work putting cutting-edge art and healthcare together has been recognised."
"The great thing about our atrium is that is has given us the scope to take large works of art and make them work. Everyone benefits."
Saatchi's decision to ignore the Tate yet again with a major donation will only add to his feud with its director, Nicholas Serota, a relationship further soured this week by the collector's decision to open his own Saatchi Museum between Tate Modern and Tate Britain on the South Bank.
The museum, which hopes to attract 750,000 paying visitors a year, will open with a Hirst retrospective next year.
The notoriously tight-lipped Saatchi said he hoped his art would make hospitals "a fraction less daunting" for patients. "Having paintings around creates a friendlier atmosphere, and if the paintings are colourful and fun so much the better," he told the Sunday Times.
But yesterday his generosity received a rebuff from the artist, physician and polymath Jonathan Miller: "I don't want to malign Charles Saatchi, but his offers seem like crackpot condescension."
