LONDON—British businessman and art collector Wilfred Cass has announced that he is commissioning 40 large street sculptures to coincide with the London Olympics. Cass, 83, told the Times (London) that despite the organization of a cultural olympiad, he believers the organizers of the games are giving too little thought to culture. The best public sculptures will take three to five years to create, he said.

"If the Olympics people don't start now, which is unlikely, there won't be any quality pieces," Cass said. "I've tried to talk to them. I've not found anybody who wanted to talk. I suppose they've got other problems on their mind."

A spokeswoman for the organizing committee of the games said: "It's not the responsibility of London 2012 to ensure that there's public artwork in boroughs across the U.K.... He needs to be talking to local authorities."

In the meantime, Cass has set aside £3 million ($5.47 million) for commissions from 40 artists — including Tony Cragg, Phillip King, Bryan Kneale, and Thomas Ostenberg. The sculptures will rise up to 40 feet high.

Cass made a fortune in 2001 from the sale of Image Bank U.K., a film and photography supply company for the advertising industry that he set up in 1979. He and his wife, Jeannette, then established the Cass Sculpture Foundation, which shows British sculpture in a park he bought at Goodwood, near Chichester.

The Olympics pieces will go on display at the park as soon as they are ready. Cass plans to lend or sell the Olympics sculptures to developers and local authorities. He is known to give most of the money from the sales of commissioned works to the artists themselves.