A CONTROVERSIAL portrait of heroin addict Rachel Whitear snapped up by art collector Charles Saatchi has escaped the blaze which destroyed part of his priceless collection.

Mr Saatchi bought the Stella Vine portrait of Miss Whitear, which depicts blood streaming from her mouth, last year.

The portrait, called simply Rachel, is currently on display at the Saatchi Gallery in London, in an exhibition called New Blood.

As the 93cm-wide oil painting is on display, it was not being stored in a warehouse used by Mr Saatchi to house some of his priceless collection.

The portrait of 21-year-old Miss Whitear sparked anger when it went on display at the same time her body was exhumed from a churchyard in Withington, near Hereford, in March, for forensic examination as part of a new investigation into her death.

Slumped

Miss Whitear was found slumped in her student bedsit, in Devon, in May 2000, with a hypodermic needle in her hand.

At the time, her mother, Pauline Holcroft, from Ledbury, described the painting as "totally gratuitous" and the timing "utterly tasteless."

Among the items believed to have been destroyed are artist Tracey Emin's tent - which inside features all the names of the people she slept with between 1963 and 1994 - and work by Damien Hirst.

The blaze broke out on Tuesday night at the warehouse owned by Momart, one of the country's leading art handlers and storers.

A Saatchi spokesman said the final toll of the works lost or damaged in the fire was not yet known.

"As well as the six warehouses, he also stores his art elsewhere, so even if the portrait wasn't on display, it might have been in storage or in a private collection."