A neighbour’s vigilance saved George Westren’s stunning works being binned by removal men. Now the remarkable story ends with a showpiece exhibit
The drawings about to go on display at London’s Saatchi gallery this weekend are remarkable for many reasons. There’s the keen eye for precision of their artist, George Westren; the cryptic titles such as Zeb and Krypton; and the abundant use of something you don’t often see in prestigious art galleries: felt-tip pen. But perhaps the most remarkable fact of all is that, in the summer of 2022, all of these works had been dumped in a skip, about to be destroyed for ever.
It was only thanks to the eagle eyes of Westren’s downstairs neighbour, Alan Warburton, that the artworks survived at all. Warburton ran out and rescued more than 100 of Westren’s drawings after spotting removal men throwing them away from his flat in Spitalfields, east London. And after posting images of the artworks on Twitter, the tale of their last-minute reprise went viral.
