Germany's hundred-million dollar art collection

A former Jewish refugee of the Nazi era has sold one of the world's most valuable private art collections to Germany.

The former refugee, Heinz Berggruen, handed over the collection at a ceremony in Berlin attended by the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder.

It has cost the Germany government a-hundred-and-twenty million dollars.

It includes seventy-five works by Picasso, and others by Henri Matisse, Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Cezanne.

Mr Berggruen, who is now eight-six, brought his collection to Berlin four years ago, after he returned to the city to live.

He had left Germany during the Nazis' rise to power. The collection is currently on public display at Berlin's Charlottenburg Palace.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service