At London's Tate Gallery, July 5, the Duke of Edinburgh was among 2,000 distinguished and illustrious guests who paid more than GBP10,000 to attend a sparkling preview party, on the eve of the opening of this year's greatest art event-the exhibition, from July 6 to September 18, of 269 Picasso paintings representing 65 years of the master's working life.

Spanish music provided a fitting background as the guests strolled through the well-lit rooms of the Gallery. Afterwards, guests sat down to a dinner of Champagne and Paella - a Spanish dish - in two huge marquees erected in the grounds of the Gallery.

Most comprehensive display ever shown of Picasso's work, the exhibition outlines the artist's progress through eleven periods, stretching from the early years, the Blue, Rose and Negro Periods, across Cubism and Cassicism, to the intense creations of the war years and his later paintings associated with places like Antibes and Vallauris, Cannes and Vauvenargues.

Industriously assembled and impressively designed, the exhibition has been organised for Britain's Arts Council by Picasso's friend and biographer, Roland Penrose, a founder of the British Institute of Contemporary Art, which receives the proceeds. Originals have been brought to the United Kingdom for the event from countries, including Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Australia and the USA, and from 78-year-old Picasso's own collection.