Collector bequeaths Turner works

Margate Pier by JMW Turner is part of the collection

A collection of paintings including eight works by JMW Turner have been bequeathed to the Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery in London.

Dorothy Scharf, who died in 2004, collected over 50 works by some of the most important watercolour artists of the 18th and 19th Centuries.

It is the most significant donation to the gallery in over 25 years.

Head of the gallery, Dr Ernst Vegelin, said: "There was a sense of revelation as the boxes opened. It was wonderful."

The Turner pieces include the Seelisburg by Moonlight and Margate Pier.

The latter was owned by John Ruskin and subsequently by the US President Franklin D Roosevelt, who apparently received it as a birthday present in 1911.

They join the 22 works by the artist already at the gallery and will be included in an exhibition of Turner's watercolours there in October 2008.

The Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery cares for a collection of over 7,000 drawings and watercolours.