22 December 2006

The Arts Council Collection is to be available to the public for the first time, thanks to a new website.

Featuring a range of work from many British artists, including Damian Hirst, Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon, the collection has previously been held in a storage facility in London, the Guardian reports.

However, the 7,500 works are now available for Internet users to peruse on an official website launched by the Hayward Gallery.

The Hayward Gallery has administered the collection since 1987 for the purposes of lending art to UK museums.

Ralph Rugoff, director of the Hayward, commented on the Arts Council Collection: "It's a people's collection, a national collection."

Although the compilation has a yearly budget of £150,000, around the cost of some modern pieces, it has works such as Bridget Riley's Movement in Squares (1961) and what Mr Rugoff refers to as "great paintings by Chris Ofili and Peter Doig".

Additionally, users of the site can create their own portfolio of favourites and find contact details for officials responsible for the pieces.

© Adfero Ltd

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