‘Prints are a way in’: Inside the Home of Collector Tim Sayer

Nestled in north London's borough of Islington, Tim Sayer's home is a treasure trove of artworks and objects. With over 50 works in the upstairs lavatory alone, a reward is offered upon every glance.

A retired BBC Radio 4 News journalist, Sayer began his collection on modest means, purchasing a set of 183 prints from an antiques shop in Richmond for ten shillings when he was 17. Since then, his collection has expanded to over 600 works.

From painting to photography and sculpture, the scope is international, with an emphasis on modern and contemporary British artists including Anthony Caro, Prunella Clough, Bridget Riley, David Nash, and Henry Moore, alongside more unusual items, including three drawings by children from a school in Bethnal Green that Sayer purchased in 1984.

Visiting an exhibition of work by Anthony Caro at The Hepworth Wakefield in 2015, Sayer and his wife Annemarie Norton—a retired ballet dancer, who now makes costumes for the opera and ballet—decided to bequeath the entire collection, including their house and library, to the institution.

An exhibition curated by Sayer went on view at The Hepworth in 2017 consisting of works from his collection and the gallery, alongside a number of loans. Among the pieces were Barbara Hepworth's first lithograph from 1958, a sculpture by Reg Butler, and a tablepiece by Anthony Caro.

On advice for those looking to find a way to start collecting, Sayer suggests that prints are a way in. 'Buy with your heart and your mind, not purely to invest,' he adds. 'And don't hang around, because it will go.' —[O]