A TRAVELLING art exhibit assembled by the Masterworks Foundation was featured in , a South Carolina newspaper.

The acknowledgement was made in anticipation of today's opening of at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston.

The exhibit features works by a respected body of artists, many of whom travelled to the island to escape colder temperatures in Britain, America, France and Canada.

Masterworks was first approached with the prospect of showing the collection at the museum after its curator, Angela Mack, met the Governor and his wife, Sir John and Lady Vereker. The Verekers were in Charleston last fall, attending an event held in honour of the museum's 100th anniversary.

"They told me about the exhibit which (was) on a tour organised by the Trust for Museum Exhibitions in Washington, DC," Ms Mack told .

"We were thrilled to get this because it fits so well with our season's theme, which is bringing well-known artists' work back to the place where it was created. For example, our next exhibit is Edward Hopper in Charleston, featuring some of the paintings he created when visiting our city."

Sixty-seven works from the Masterworks collection are now on display in South Carolina. The number represents just a sample of the 1,000 works that have been "repatriated" to Bermuda through the Foundation's efforts.

Previously, although the painters were celebrated in their own countries, their works created on the island were "scattered and fragmented" and indeed, "remained virtually unacknowledged" here.

The article appeared in the Art & Travel section of Sunday's . The reporter, Dottie Ashley, contacted Masterworks to try to better understand how "Winslow Homer's misty bridges or Georgia O'Keefe's sun-baked desert scenes" were connected with "the glistening, sunlit Atlantic Island of Bermuda".

"About 20 years ago we decided to start the collection and it was an ambitious project," explained Masterworks' assistant director Elise Outerbridge . "We knew the paintings were out there because all those famous artists came here to vacation and work.

"At the turn of the century, Bermuda became known as a kind of bohemian artists' colony of not just painters, but also writers. For example, Eugene O'Neill had a house here."

She explained that a Masterworks committee gathered historical information about the works and then contacted the artists themselves, or the owners of the various pieces and asked for their co-operation in obtaining them for the collection.

"We did lots of begging and badgering to get people to donate paintings, and if they didn't, we found sponsors or raised the money to buy them," Mrs. Outerbridge said.

"And the Internet has helped quite a bit. We know that Andrew Wyeth painted a great deal here but we haven't been able to obtain one of his Bermuda paintings so far because they are in private collections."

She highlighted one painting of particular interest to South Carolina ? a work donated by Charleston artist West Frasier.

"A number of the images evoke life by the sea and reflect the tropical colours and the flora and fauna along with the leisurely pace of life that you also see in Charleston," she added.