Berlin art trove comes home

Schroeder (right) praises Berggruen's generosity

By the BBC's Patrick Bartlett in Frankfurt

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

It is not only a human, wholly noble gesture, but also a signal for reconciliation and trust in today's Germany

Chancellor Schroeder

The art patron, Heinz Berggruen, handed over the collection, which includes 75 works by Picasso, at a signing ceremony attended by the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

The government is paying just under $120m - about half the market value of the paintings.

"This is a thank you," Mr Berggruen said, at the ceremony in his native Berlin. "For the fact that life was good for me here, that the terrible years are past."

Friend of artists

Heinz Berggruen, now 86, brought his art collection to Berlin four years ago, after he returned to the city to live.

He had left Germany during the Nazis' rise to power.

In the lifetime of travels that followed, he met some of the centrury's most distinguished painters, including Picasso.

His paintings are at the heart of the collection, with works from all his creative periods.

I will not speak of a sale, for me it is rather a gift - Berlin molded me, there is an emotional tie with this city

Heinz Berggruen

Other artists featured include Paul Klee, Henri Matisse, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cezanne.

Chancellor Schroeder said the sale of the collection "is not only a human, wholly noble gesture, but also a signal for reconciliation and trust in today's Germany".

Mr Berggruen replied that, rather than a sale, he regarded it as a gift to the city where he was born.

The collection, currently on public display at the Charlottenburg Palace, is already one of Berlin's most visited exhibitions.