Tourists on luxury coach tours to Bath in spring 2011 will be able to see the founding collection of the city's oldest public art gallery for free.

Holburne Museum was recently given a grant of £86,000 for conservation and restoration work and plans to welcome visitors again early next year, BBC News reported.

The building was founded in 1882 and is set for a revamp and new extension to help it continue its heritage as a top tourist attraction in Bath.

Funding from the Esmee Fairburn Foundation will allow the museum to display some of its original collection, which includes renaissance bronzes and 17th and 18th century-paintings, for the first time since World War II.

"Many of the objects have been in our basement and in a condition that meant they weren't allowed to be shown," curator of decorative arts Matthew Winterbottom told the news provider.

"This will enable them to all be cleaned, restored and brought out again."

He added that the founding collection, which was created by Sir William Holburne, contains about 2,000 of the museum's 9,000 exhibits.

In other news, a Bath Spa University researcher has been given a research grant of more than £100,000 to study the diaries of Elizabeth Wynne, who tended to Lord Nelson when he was wounded in a battle off the coast of Tenerife, BBC News reported.