AN amateur collector who spent 50 years and every spare penny compiling an unrivalled collection of art is to leave the entire thing to the British public, in a gift hailed among the most generous of its kind.

    Tim Sayer, a former BBC Radio 4 news writer, has amassed more than 400 works from the finest artists of his time, including David Hockney, Gerhard Richter, Henry Moore, Alexander Calder and Bridget Riley.

    A self-confessed “art-oholic,” he and his wife have forsaken holidays and a car to indulge their passion, lining every room in their home from top to bottom with framed works.

    Sayer, who has never spent more than £7,000 (US$9,902) on a painting or drawing, has now left the complete collection to the Hepworth Wakefield, one of the largest bequests to any regional British museum in history.

    It will include works by Anthony Caro, Sonia Delaunay, Sol Lewitt and Paul Nash, as well as a small early print by Hockney that once lived in his downstairs loo.

    Sir Nicholas Serota, director of Tate, hailed the bequest, describing it as reflecting “the discriminating eye of a person of modest means, whose passion for art took precedence over holidays.”

    Sayer, 70, said it gave he and his wife “great satisfaction” to pledge the collection to the West Yorkshire gallery, where it will go on show for a temporary exhibition later this year.

    It will then return to his North London home for the remainder of his life, before passing to the gallery permanently.

    Sayer began collecting in 1962 after spotting a collection of 16th — 18th century prints in a Richmond junk shop, priced at just 50 pence (US$0.71).

    He has since gone on to become something of an expert, building up a relationship with galleries and befriending artists he admires as his own reputation grew.

    Joking his early interest was a “bit odd” for a teenager, he added his interest in art had only “multiplied” from there.

    “There’s absolutely no rhyme or reason to the collection,” he told the Telegraph. “It’s things I love, things that catch my eye, things I can afford and won’t bore me after too long.”

    (SD-Agencies)