Gallery hosts major artworks after successful bid

A gallery is hosting famous artworks for three months after making a successful bid.

Hartlepool Art Gallery is showing 44 prints, drawings and paintings from artists as diverse as Andy Warhol and 19th Century modernist Edouard Manet, after making a "compelling" application to the British Museum.

The museum said the works were rarely seen outside London and hoped they would "increase footfall" over the summer.

The free, British Museum Touring Exhibition runs at the gallery until 24 August.

Hartlepool is the collection's final stop before it returns to London, after already been on show in Wolverhampton and York.

Gemma Ptak, assistant director of Hartlepool Borough Council, said: "We applied alongside other galleries and were told that our case was compelling.

"A lot of the reason for why we were chosen was because of the way we engage young people - we stood out during the application process."

The British Museum collection is on display alongside artwork by students from the Northern School of Art, which has a campus in the town.

The display also includes work by contemporary artists including Nahem Shoa's oil on canvas work Giant Head, Ben.

Isabel Seligman, curator at the British Museum, said: "We want as many people as possible to see these drawings outside of London, so that's why we looked at different regions to take them to."

She added that galleries were also chosen based on how they could help audiences "engage" with the art.

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