Gustave Courbet Paula Modersohn-Becker Edgar Degas Claude Monet Pierre-Auguste Renoir Edouard Manet Camille Pissarro Paul Cezanne

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Rau was born into a wealthy industrial family in Germany but sold the family business at the age of 40, trained as a doctor, and built a hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo that received Unicef support. He lived frugally, splurging only on art and amassing a collection of about 740 works.

A year before his death in 2002, Rau donated 621 works from his collection to Unicef, the UN children's fund. Yesterday, after a years-long legal battle with Rau's family over his will and the fate of the remaining works, Unicef announced it had received right of inheritance for them. Rau's family had argued the validity of his will based on deteriorating health, but the complaint was rejected by a German court in August.

Rau requested that 153 of the finest works be put on public show through 2026 and the rest sold. Unicef has reached an arrangement with the Arp Museum in Rolandseck, Germany, near Koblenz, to show 230 of the paintings next year, and is still seeking a space to show the best sculptures. Included in the collection are works by such artists as Fra Angelico, Lucas Cranach, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Canaletto, Gustave Courbet, Edgar Degas, El Greco, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne, and Edouard Manet.

The works to be sold include two Pissaros, a Monet, a Max Liebermann, and a Paula Modersohn-Becker.