Sir Denis Mahon

Sir Denis Mahon, one of the UK's foremost art historians, amassed the finest private collection of Italian Baroque masterpieces in the world, bought in the days when they were out of fashion and undervalued. When he died in 2011, he left 57 of the most important works in his collection to the nation, on the proviso that the public should not be charged to view them. This morning, at the National Gallery in London, the Art Fund announced how these works would be distributed to British galleries and museums. The National Gallery gets the lion's share: 25 paintings including Guido Reni's The Rape of Europa (c. 1637-9) shown here. The Ashmolean in Oxford gets 12, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge 6. The rest are split between the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh and Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, with one going to Temple Newsam House in Leeds. CLICK for The Telegraph slide show of a selection from Sir Denis Mahon's collection.