A couple who began an art collection on a limited budget half a century ago announced today they are giving works now worth a fortune to the Tate.

Mercedes Stoutzker, who chose the pieces with husband Ian, said she hoped others would be as moved and comforted by them as she had been.

The gift includes works by Lucian Freud, David Hockney, Jacob Epstein, Conrad Shawcross and Rachel Whiteread. Tate Britain will put them on show this year.

Thanking them for the donation, Tate director Sir Nicholas Serota said: “In offering a gift of nine important works, the Stoutzkers have added exemplary individual paintings by two generations of British artists and have greatly enriched the national collection of art after 1960.”