New York Metropolitan Museum of Art receives $1bn donation

New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art has received a $1bn (£650m) donation of Cubist art from cosmetics executive, Leonard Lauder, BBC reported.

The heir to the Estee Lauder fortune has pledged 78 works - considered one of the foremost collections of Cubism in the world.

It includes pieces from Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Juan Gris and Fernand Leger which were amassed over 37 years.

Museum director Thomas Campbell said the gift was "truly transformational".

In a statement, Lauder, 80, said his gift was for "the people who live and work in New York and those from around the world who come to visit our great arts institutions".

The Met had previously been weak on early 20th Century art, but with Lauder's donation it will be at the forefront of world collections.

The collection is thought to be worth around 13% of Lauders' personal fortune according to Forbes magazine which it said "enshrines him in the pantheon of the most generous philanthropists of all time".

Meanwhile, letters written by J D Salinger to a spiritual mentor have been donated to The Morgan Library and Museum in Manhattan.

The Catcher of the Rye author wrote 28 letters to Swami Vivekananda, founder of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Centre, which donated the correspondence.

Salinger, who died in 2010 aged 91, was strongly influenced by Eastern religion and philosophy and mentioned Vivekananda in his story Hapworth 16, 1924.

The Morgan Museum now holds 52 letters written by Salinger in its collection.