£150m art gift unveiled

One of London's leading art galleries is today revealing to the public £ 150million of art treasures it has been given by a secretive group of collectors.

The Courtauld Institute has received 105 works by scores of the great artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries to put on show indefinitely.

The sculptures, paintings and drawings have transformed the galleries at Somerset House in the Strand, with works by Rodin, Matisse, Andre Derain and Henry Moore. Much of the collectioncomes from the Fridart Foundation-which was set up in 1960 by one of the inventors of the long-playing record, Dr David Josefowitz, a chemist and violinist, now in his eighties, who made millions in the music industry.

Senior Courtauld curator Dr Ernst Vegelin said: "We could not have afforded to buy even one of these paintings."