Police are advising people not to approach Jazz, an eagle owl, if they spot his 6ft wingspan or piercing orange eyes. He was last seen heading towards Ilford town centre in a distressed state.Mr Triphook, who says Jazz is more a member of the family than a wild bird of prey, is concerned because the owl will now be hungry and on the lookout for small animals such as rabbits, or cats and dogs.”He’s very good-natured and he’s not frightened of people, which is the downside when he’s hungry because he won’t be scared off,” Mr Triphook said.”He was fed before he disappeared so he’s gone without food for three days. They can normally go without food for a little while before he gets desperately hungry. But he’s always been well fed so he’s not used to going without food.”Police said the bird could be dangerous if it felt threatened.

Last year two even larger birds of prey – vultures – escaped from captivity and enjoyed brief freedom. Sydney, an African white-backed vulture from a Bedfordshire birds-of-prey park, got as far as Colchester, Essex, and Foster, a Ruppell’s vulture, got out of Banham Zoo near Diss, Norfolk, for a week before being recaptured.The Eurasian eagle own Bubo bubo is not to be trifled with. The world’s largest owl, found from Spain to Siberia, it is a big, barrel-shaped bird that will take prey as large as deer.It is often kept as a pet and birds that escape sometimes breed in the wild, even in Britain where it is not naturally found.The species is often persecuted and numbers have declined across its range. A pair believed to be escapers have raised young for years near Catterick, Yorkshire.The birds tend to need rocky areas with cliffs and gorges, rockfalls and caves, and a certain amount of tree cover.Several exotic pets have made breaks for freedom. Iggy, a 4ft misogynistic iguana, escaped from its owners in Essex last July only to be recaptured three weeks later.. The launch party will be an advertiser’s dream. With a guest list topped by David Bowie, Alan Bennett, Jeremy Irons and Tracey Emin, tonight’s celebration to mark the birth of the Saatchi Gallery is guaranteed the headlines its owner has made a career out of generating

The launch party will be an advertiser’s dream.

The nation appeared to will the success of Tate Modern after the Millennium Dome debacle. Mr Saatchi, by contrast, is a multimillionaire advertising guru with a feted girlfriend (the TV chef Nigella Lawson), who helped persuade the country to vote for Margaret Thatcher ­ the woman who, of course, made his gallery’s home in County Hall possible by abolishing the Greater London Council.But the cavils cannot all be put down to sour grapes. Even Damien Hirst has dismissed the gallery as a “waste of time”, because most of the work has been shown before.Art critics, too, have voiced doubts. It has been said that County Hall, with its chambers and offices, is a very unpromising space for exhibitions. Its rabbit’s warren of rooms, some so inhospitable that only one piece can be exhibited, is a world away from the open white spaces that Mr Saatchi has made his trademark.Its listed building status and its miles of wood panelling and corridors presented problems for Mr Saatchi as he set out to showcase his unparalleled collection of Young British Artists.Mr Saatchi has had to adopt some innovative hanging manoeuvres in the difficult space to do the artwork justice. Some paintings have had to be displayed on easels, others hang from the roof on ropes and shockingly modern pieces by Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas have been given old, ornate frames.A marble staircase leads to the most famous works ­ Damien Hirst’s shark, Chris Ofili’s elephant-dung Virgin and Marcus Harvey’s Myra Hindley portrait ­ which compete in the central rotunda.