After almost 40 years in riiding, one of the most remarkable private art collections in Europe goes on public view today for the first time. The Burrell Collection of more than 8,000 items, conservatively valued at over E100 million, is housed in a spectacular new gallery in the woodlands of Pollok Estate in Glasgow. Today it was opened by Her Majesty The Queen.
The Burrell is a name which has haunted Glasgow ever since Sir William Burrell presented his collection to the city in 1944. Since then it has been stored in secret warehouses and archives awaiting the construction of its own showcase. The gallery cost 120 million and took five years to complete.
But who was Sir William Burrell ? How did this Victorian Howard Hughes amass his vast fortune? And what made him the most obsessive art collector of them all in an age of large-scale collecting?
Magnus Magnusson pursues The Millionaire Magpie with the help of Lord Clark: He's the only man I've ever known who was like a miser in Balzac.
Edwin Mullins: Here we have a man who wanted to own the past. The Keeper of the Burrell Collection, Dr Richard Marks : If I've got it wrong he'll haunt me! ,
Film editors
MICHAEL TOSH. LOUIS MILLER Producer DAVID MARTIN
(Treasures of Burrell begins next Friday)