Le Havre Museum gets modern art windfall

LE HAVRE, France, March 8 (UPI) -- The Havre museum announced Tuesday a gift of more than 200 major Impressionist, Fauvist, and other works of French art.

The paintings, drawings, and sculptures are from the collection of a businessman who sold cotton in the port of LeHavre early during the first half of the last century.

The items were acquired by the merchant, Olivier Senn, prior to World War II and were given to the museum by his granddaughter, Helen Senn-Foulds. It is the largest such gift ever made to the city and will be featured in an exhibition of selected works opening next Sunday to run through June 12.

The collection includes paintings by Pierre Auguste Renoir, Eugene Delacroix, Camille Pissarro, Pierre Bonnard, and Eugene Vallaton; drawings by Eugene Boudin and Albert Marquet; and sculpture by Francois Pompon.

The entire collection will go on permanent view at the museum by the end of the year.