Why I gave £100m of art to the Scots

THE art dealer Anthony d'Offay made a £100 million gift of artworks to the nation yesterday, telling The Scotsman it was "a small way of saying thank you". The deal will see 725 works, including those of Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst, displayed free in galleries across Scotland.

No act of generosity on this scale has been seen since the early 20th century. Mr d'Offay hopes his donation, which recalls bequests by Samuel Courtauld and Henry Tate, will inspire other young art-lovers.

Yesterday he revealed how, 45 years ago, as an Edinburgh University art student, he visited the National Galleries of Scotland daily and used the capital's exhibitions as his "textbook". It was at this time he bought his first artwork for about £50 instead of going on a summer holiday.

Over three decades, Mr d'Offay and his wife, Anne, have amassed a vast collection spanning the biggest names in modern art. He will receive the £26.5 million he originally paid for the collection, which is now valued at £125 million. It ranges from more than 200 Warhol works to Hirst, Ron Mueck's popular giant sculptures, and a sailing boat installation by Scottish artist Ian Hamilton Finlay.

That art, in 50 "rooms" of work by 25 artists, will, from next spring, be shown in Orkney, Inverness, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh, as well as London and four other English locations. The National Galleries of Scotland estimates about 500,000 people will see the art next year.

Mr d'Offay said bringing art to the young was his motivation and in later years he had bought many of the works with a view of gifting them to the nation.

"It's about education," he said. "You have to think of art as a factory of ideas, as a way young people can grow up and be inspired.

"Outside London and Edinburgh, it is very difficult to see great contemporary art. I was born in Sheffield and brought up in Leicester and I was very conscious that what I could see in museums was 18th-century portraits, Egyptian mummies and stuffed animals.

"Art is important because it stimulates young people's creativity. If you see great art it makes you ask questions and if you ask questions it makes you seek answers. It's always been in my mind that this is something I wanted to do."

He added: "A lot of things were painful to part with, but the jewel for me is walking into a museum and seeing a school party there.

"I don't think the sums of money are the interesting thing about what happened. The idea of 50 rooms of art shared across the UK is the important thing."

The National Galleries of Scotland and the Tate Gallery in London have negotiated the deal for the collection, at about a fifth of its true value, with £10 million in grants from the Scottish and UK governments. In a unique arrangement, the two galleries will show and manage the "Artist Rooms".

The collector had followed his father to Edinburgh University, where he decided to study art. It was in the capital that he met his first wife. He once described walking round the city's galleries as "the defining experience" of his life.

He bought his first piece, by the Scottish artist Martin Boyce, in the city, at a Traverse Theatre exhibition in 1962, after the artist offered it at half price.

Speaking to The Scotsman yesterday as the announcement was made at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh, the 68-year-old spoke of his deep attachment to the capital and its art scene. Edinburgh, he said "was a beautiful, romantic city, of a size you can feel belongs to you". He said that when he arrived in Scotland to study in the 1960s, it was the "first time I'd been in a great city".

He explained: "The National Galleries of Scotland is the kind of experience that defines your life. This is about trying to make something happen in a place where it will make a great difference to young people, their appreciation of themselves and their era. It will inform what they do with their lives and how they see the world."

Asked why only one Scottish artist, Hamilton Finlay, was in the collection, he was puzzled. "I never thought of artists as Scottish, or English, or American, I just thought of artists, whether they were excellent or not. There are lots of great Scottish artists."

Unlike most donors, Mr d'Offay has asked for his name not to be attached to the collection. He said he hopes his gift will set a precedent.

He added: "In a time when, for many people in this country, religion no longer fulfils the role it did 50-100 years ago, what you believe in becomes very important. Art and creativity become something you can believe in."

The National Galleries of Scotland and the Tate are to set up a £5 million endowment fund to keep the Artist Rooms as a living collection with work by new artists.

From spring next year, they will show in Edinburgh and at least four other Scots locations – the Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums, Glasgow's museums, the Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, and the Pier Arts Centre in Orkney. Five English galleries and others in Northern Ireland and Wales will also benefit.

Mr d'Offay said it was a condition of his gift that the exhibitions would be free. He will act as an unpaid curator for five years.

Sir Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate, said the sale was "an extraordinary act of philanthropy", adding: "I don't know of anything equivalent anywhere else in the world. This represents most of Anthony's wealth."

John Leighton, director of the National Galleries in Edinburgh, said it far outstripped any previous donation in Scotland. "This is an absolutely incredible act of generosity."

Sir Brian Ivory, chairman of the Dean Gallery in Edinburgh, said: "The annual spending budget of the National Galleries is £1.25 million. In effect, it would have taken us more than 100 years to come close to purchasing a collection like this. Collections like this do not come up for sale and so what has happened today is truly extraordinary."

Linda Fabiani, the culture minister, hailed the move as a "once-in-a-generation event".

The art world was last night abuzz with the news, with many likening the gift to those of the philanthropists of the past. Henry Tate, the 19th-century industrialist, donated his collection to the nation and added enough money for a building dedicated to British art. Samuel Courtauld gave a magnificent collection of mainly French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings to found the Courtauld Institute in 1932.

ALL TOGETHER – LEADING TALENTS OF ART WORLD

ANTHONY d'Offay's art collection, the future "Artist Rooms", was independently valued by Sotheby's and Christie's. A conservative value from their estimates is £125 million in today's art market. Some highlights:

• GILBERT AND GEORGE (b.1943 and 1942): Nine works including George the C*** and Gilbert the S*** (1970), a sculpture in which the maverick artists are smiling at the viewer with cut-out letters pinned to their chests.

• DAMIEN HIRST (b.1965): Five works from the British artist including a large early spot painting, the recent butterfly diptych Monument To The Living And The Dead (2006), and Away From The Flock (1995), which is a sheep in formaldehyde.

• JEFF KOONS (b.1955): The Tate has one work by the US artist and the donation adds a further 17. While Koons won a reputation for explicit photographs and paintings of his porn star wife, Ilona Staller, there are no "controversial works" in the collection, a National Galleries of Scotland spokeswoman said.

• RON MUECK (b.1958): Three sculptures from 2005 – Wild Man, Spooning Couple, and Mask III. Mueck came to prominence with his tiny hyper-realist sculpture of his father, Dead Dad, which was shown in the Sensation exhibition in 1997. The artist's Edinburgh show in 2006 was a huge popular hit.

• BILL VIOLA (b.1951): Two works by the American film and video artist from 2001 – Catherine's Room and Four Hands.

Catherine's Room presents scenes from the life of St Catherine across a sequence of five screens, while Four Hands concentrates on actions made by a pair of disembodied hands reminiscent of Indian mudras.

His videos have also included footage of a woman dying and another woman giving birth.

• ANDY WARHOL (1928-87): A total of 232 works spanning the pop artist's career, including 50 paintings, 32 photographs, 50 early drawings and watercolours and four drawings from 1974 to 1981.

Particular highlights include the multiple Skulls from 1976 and Camouflage of 1986, a central exhibit in last year's Warhol retrospective at the National Gallery of Scotland.

• DIANE ARBUS (1923-71): Nearly 70 photographs by the American Diane Arbus, known for her portraits of people on the fringes of society, including transvestites, dwarfs and prostitutes, were a recent addition to the d'Offay collection. Neither the NGS nor the Tate hold any works. .

• IAN HAMILTON FINLAY (1925-2006): Regarded as one of the greatest modern Scottish artists, is represented by his installation Sailing Dinghy includes a sailing boat, poem and wall texts.

• ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE (1946-89): Three rooms of probably the best collection in the world after the Guggenheim Museum, including a portrait of Patti Smith. An NGS spokeswoman again insisted works by the artist, notorious for his shocking photographs from the US gay scene, were not "controversial".

• JANNIS KOUNELLIS (b. 1936): Anthony d'Offay rates the Greek-born Kounellis as one of the greatest in his collection. His untitled work of 1969 includes sacks of lentils, rice, peas, corn, beans, potatoes and coffee.

&149 JOSEPH BEUYS (1921-86): Six rooms of 136 works by the artist and social activist, including 110 drawings and watercolours rated of "international importance".