Swindon is famous for several things - but it probably should be better known for its collection of modern art.

Many art buffs know all about it, of course, but probably most people are less familiar.

In brief, Swindon Borough Council has around 800 paintings, sculptures, ceramics and multimedia pieces that make up one of the most important collections of modern and contemporary art in the world

It causes a minor disagreement amongst those who know it best at Euclid Street

Museum manager Frances Yeo said: ”I tend to say it’s one of the best collections of modern and contemporary British art in the world. It’s a very subjective matter, and perhaps someone else likes another collection better.”

The council’s cabinet member for placemaking, Councillor Marina Strinkovsky, takes fewer prisoners: “I’d say it’s the best collection like this in the world.

“I have a wide frame of reference for this, and I’m in no doubt.”

But how did Swindon Borough Council find itself in the position of being one of the country’s best art collectors?

Ms Yeo said: “In the 1920s there was a Swindon gallery in a former Roman Catholic Church and it had a few pieces of very local art.

“Mid-20th century, two collectors HJP ‘Jimmy’ Bomford and Charles Phelps both bequeathed collections to the museum. Phelps was from Swindon and they both felt that some of the art they owned which was related to Swindon, should be available to the people of Swindon.”

Mr Phelps died in 1949 and left a substantial sum of money to Swindon to continue building its collection.

In the immediate post-war years there was no dedicated space for the collection, and it was shuffled between the Arts Centre and Swindon Museum, which has very little room, until an extension was built to Apsley House in Old Town, specifically as a gallery.

Now the collection is displayed in the recently opened Museum & Art Swindon on the upper floor of the Civic Offices in Euclid Street.

Ms Yeo said: “We have much more space to display the works than we did,” And Cllr Strinkovsky adds: “And we’ve got much better storage which makes it much easier to change displays and exhibitions.”

And the art collection is growing. Ms Yeo said: “It’s a collection of modern and  contemporary art – so it starts with the art being made after the First World War, and indeed the 1918 and 1919 flu epidemic, but it continues up to today, we have pieces by  Grayson Perry, and artists working today.

“We  have some anchor pieces by major artists, but also often have smaller, more intimate works, showing their development.”