Tracey makes a pile

One used bed: Yours for £150,000

Art collector and advertising guru Charles Saatchi has paid £150,000 for Tracey Emin's controversial work My Bed.

Emin is said to have lain in the bed for four days contemplating suicide.

She later recreated the scene, complete with soiled sheets, vodka bottles, blood-stained underwear and a used condom, and was short-listed for the Turner Prize last year.

Emin and her work: A urine-stained sheet

Though decried by purists in the art world, the work was considered a masterpiece by connoisseurs of modern art.

Two Chinese students caused a stir last year when they jumped on the bed for a protest pillow fight at London's Tate Gallery.

Tate pipped

The Tate Modern was reportedly in negotiations with Emin for the bed, before Mr Saatchi pipped them to it.

He intends to show off his new purchase as part of his Ant Noises exhibition at his north London Saatchi Gallery in September.

He told the Sunday Times newspaper: "I was very slow to get the loopiness of Tracey's work. But I am a helpless fan now."

The art collector also owns two other works by Emin, one of them a tent entitled Everyone I Have Ever Slept with 1963-1994, bought at a price of £40,000.

But others have been less enthusiatic about Emin's work.

David Lee, former editor of Art Review, has described her as someone who cannot paint or draw but has a knack for attracting publicity.