A Turner panting worth an estimated £100 million has been bequeathed to the nation by a Jewish property tycoon.

Harry Hyams, the developer behind the Centre Point tower in central London , died last month at the age of 87, leaving the painting Dutch Boats in a Gale to the National Gallery in his will.

The work, considered to be one of the British artist’s most important paintings, had been loaned by Mr Hyams to the National Gallery since 1998.

In his will, he stipulated that the arrangement should continue after his death.

This consolidates the collection of Turner painting in the hands of the nation; the artist bequeathed almost 300 oil paintings and around 30,000 sketches to the National Gallery upon his death in 1851.

Dutch Boats in a Gale was painted in 1801 and shows two vessels on course for collision in a stormy sea. It is also known as the Bridgewater Sea Piece, after the Third Duke of Bridgewater, who commissioned it.