THE offices of Deutsche Bank in New Street now house 23 paintings from the bank’s contemporary collection.

The German-based bank has been collecting paintings by contemporary artists for 25 years.

Unlike most corporate collections, the art is not for investment, but to enrich the environment in the workplace and to support mainly little-known artists all around the world.

Alistair Hicks, art adviser to the bank and also an author and critic, visited the Island last month to supervise the hanging of the paintings.

He explained that the bank only buys paintings on paper, which, at an average price of less than £1,000, tend to be cheaper than those on canvas.

The paintings also reflect the original ideas of the artists.

The collection of 50,000 works of art is now one of the finest of its kind in the world.

Mr Hicks said: ‘My department sources the pictures and will then make sure that they are suitable for the working environment and are not sexist, racist, and so on.

‘But they are not just wallpaper – there has to be structure and a theme.

The whole collection is about ideas.