The late artist Lucian Freud has expressed his gratitude to Great Britain for welcoming his family when they arrived in the country as refugees, by leaving a treasured Corot portrait to the nation under the Acceptance in Lieu scheme.

The artist was born in Berlin, but moved with his Jewish family to London in 1933, aged 11, in order to escape the rise of Nazism. He became a British citizen in 1939 and went on to become one of the finest painters the UK has seen during the last century. He died aged 88 in July 2011.

Mr Freud purchased L\'Italienne ou La Femme à la Manche Jaune (The Italian Woman, or Woma...