Wernher collection to go back on display

One of Europe's greatest private art collections is to go on view in London after a deal was struck to keep it in Britain for another 125 years.

The long-term future of the Wernher Collection was secured when the owners agreed to lend it to English Heritage after a year of talks. Its 650 works will be displayed at the Ranger's House in Blackheath early next year. They have been in storage since 1991.

Julius Bryant, English Heritage's director of collections, said the items would be displayed in the "quirky" way Sir Julius Wernher intended with "the original mixture of masterpieces, fakes and replicas and the over-restored".

The Arts minister Baroness Blackstone praised English Heritage for stopping the collection going abroad.