Bankside Tate to hold Picasso and Hockney

The Tate Gallery's director, Nicholas Serota, yesterday gave the firmest indications yet of the kinds of works of art that will hang in the new Tate Gallery of Modern Art at Bankside in London when it opens in the year 2000.

Britain's first national museum of modern art is likely to be served by a footbridge across the Thames linking it with St Paul's Cathedral, and a pier that will bring tourists by boat to the museum and to the neighbouring Globe Theatre.

There will also be a roof restaurant overlooking the Thames and St Paul's.

Mr Serota said yesterday that he planned to open the converted power station as the Tate Museum of Modern Art in May 2000.

Some pounds 85m of the pounds 105m required had already been raised and he was confident of finding the rest.

The Millennium Commission has already given pounds 50m of lottery money to the project.

The new gallery is expected to hold between 600 and 1,000 works of art from the 20th century, nearly all of which will come from the Tate's own store of paintings, sculptures and installations.

Mr Serota is also negotiating with Neil McGregor, his opposite number at the National Gallery, to move some 20th-century works to Bankside.

These paintings should include works by Picasso and at least one Matisse.

Mr Serota said that British contemporary art will be well represented in the new gallery in the context of international currents in the 20th century, and at the Tate on Millbank in the context of the history of British art.

The new Bankside gallery would contain British art from Bomberg, Wyndham Lewis, Hodgkin and Hockney. Over the next four years, the Tate plans to buy 50 or 60 new works to augment the collection.

Mr Serota said a room will be devoted to Mark Rothko, which he expects will be popular with visitors.

The Tate's collection of works by Bonnard would also be a major fixture at Bankside, along with the surrealist collection.

The Bankside building will retain its vast atrium, with several floors above containing individual galleries, education spaces and a shop.

Next week, an architectural competition will be launched by for the new footbridge to link the new modern art museum with St Paul's Cathedral. This will be the first new bridge across the Thames since Tower Bridge was built in 1894.