Art collector Charles Saatchi plans to donate his Saatchi Gallery containing 200 works of art worth £25 million to the British public.

Mr Saatchi, who was born to Iraqi Jewish parents and is married to Nigella Lawson, announced his 70,000 sq ft gallery in Chelsea, home to pieces by Tracey Emin and Jake and Dinos Chapman, will be renamed the Museum of Contemporary Art and will be open free to the public when he retires.

A spokeswoman for the gallery said it was “currently in discussion with potential government departments who would own the works on behalf of the nation.

“All costs associated with the storage, restoration or cataloguing the collection will be borne by the museum.”