Tate to acquire £100m modern art collection

The Tate is set to acquire jointly a modern art collection worth more than £100 million.

The gallery has entered talks with Anthony d'Offay, until recently the most powerful art dealer in London, to buy his collection in collaboration with the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. It includes work by Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Howard Hodgkin and Diane Arbus.

No sale or gift arrangement has yet been concluded but the deal would easily represent the biggest acquisition in Tate's history and would bring the largest ever addition of post-war works to the gallery.

According to the Art Newspaper, the 700 works being sold by Mr D'Offay, who retired from the art world in 2001, would require 60 rooms if they were on show. Work would be shown in Tate Modern as well as Tate Britain and Tate Liverpool.

Tate director Sir Nicholas Serota said: "There is still a long way to go. But London and Edinburgh have agreed in principle and d'Offay has welcomed the idea.

"It's very exciting. I have known Anthony d'Offay for 30 years and he has always been one of the most important contemporary art dealers. There are few collections of this importance anywhere in the world."

Mr D'Offay has tended to collect his favourite artists in single rooms in a bid to show how an artist's career has developed. His artworks include Hirst's pickled sheep piece, Away From The Flock, as well as self portraits by Warhol. Other artists represented in his collection include Gilbert and George, Lucian Freud, Jasper Johns, Rachel Whiteread, Mark Rothko and Jeff Koons.

Sir Nicholas would not estimate a figure for the value of the collection but said the Tate would seek funding from private individuals and from public sources, adding: "This could mean the Government, the Heritage Lottery Fund or the Art Fund."

He said the collection would be seen throughout the UK as well as in London and Edinburgh, thereby fulfilling one of the key criteria of Lottery applications. "The Warhols might be in London for two or three years and then go nationwide," he said.

The Tate discussed the plan with trustees in May and the Art Newspaper said the proposed extension to Tate Modern, due to be completed in 2012, could house some of the work.

Mr D'Offay, 66, a millionaire who lives in a house near Regent's Park and who operated out of three galleries in Dering Street off Oxford Street, would not be drawn on the offer.

But Sir Nicholas added: "I think Anthony d'Offay sees it as an important part of building appreciation of contemporary art in England, which is something he's engaged in."