Murdoch's decision to move in confirmed by sources in the property and media worlds last week -- has left many of the artists who live and work in the neighbourhood's gentrified lofts in slack-jawed amazement, if not outright indignation. ``It's just too bizarre,'' said Sean Sweeney, director of the SoHo Alliance, a volunteer community group. ``Here is one of the most right-wing men in the world moving into one of the world's most left-wing neighbourhoods. It's a bit of aculture clash, to say the least.'' Sweeney, who represents the SoHo artistic community, went on: ``How does he think he can live here? He's not an artist. I guess if we want to maintain property values we'll have to force him out. It's not so much about Philistines at the gate, but it makes a mockery of the New York zoning laws that make SoHo what it is.''

Some 70 per cent of SoHo's lofts and apartments are occupied by artists and gallery owners; many buildings have a rule that prevents any artist selling on to a non-artist. Mimi Smith, an artist who has lived in SoHo for 25 years, will be one of Murdoch's closest neighbours. From her loft, she has a direct view of the mogul's new garden rooftop on Prince Street. At the corner of fashionable West Broadway, the three-storey abode is known to locals as the ``$7m apartment''. Smith, whose 1965 ``recycled dress'' (made of bags and napkins) has been displayed in London at the Hayward Gallery, said she had ``nothing personal'' against the media magnate, but wassorry to hear the apartment was not being sold to an artist. ``I'm a firm believer in keeping it all for artists - that's what this community is all about. I just hope he'll be a good neighbour,'' she said. Others were not so charitable. Peter Koper, an independent film-maker, said: ``What's happened to him? Did he bump his head somewhere, wake up and suddenly think he's Woody Allen?'' Militant community activism is now something of a fashionable occupation. Millionaire property owners in the summer resort area of the Hamptons, Long Island, are up in arms over a vast house under construction by Ira Rennert, a secretive billionaire; the United Nation Secretary General Kofi Annan has joined condemnation of Donald Trump's plans to overshadow the world body's headquarters with a skyscraper; even Madonna has come out fighting over a plan to develop her local YMCA, saying a construction mishap might endanger her family.

Despite the local indignation, the definition of ``artist'' in SoHo is, perhaps, a loose one.With residents such as Charles Saatchi, David Bowie, Calvin Klein and clutches of actors and models, SoHo has fast become a neighbourhood for those who like to see and be seen.