Now Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, and Andy Warhol have hung out in many places around the world, but never in Albania. Now, for the first time, their canvasses will be part of a cultural exchange exhibit in the country's National Gallery.

The collection consists of 71 works of art and spans hundreds of years. They are canvasses by artists such as Renee Magritte, Marc Chagall, Piet Mondrian, and Francis Bacon, as well as 16th-Century Flemish Baroque artist Anthony van Dyck, and Italian painter Guido Reni.

For painters like 24-year-old art graduate Desantila Lika, the opportunity is a dream come true.

The collection, valued by experts at over 26 million US dollars, is owned by Italian collector Franceso Martani. The most valued piece is Paul Klee's "Album Blatt fir Y," estimated at some 2.5 million US dollar.

Martani, a surgeon, started collecting in the 1960s. His collection is being shown in Albania as part of a month of cultural activities marking the Italian-Albanian friendship.

The exhibition runs until Friday.

An Albanian couple looks at a painting by Pablo Picasso at an exhibition in the capital Tirana Thursday, April 22, 2010. An exhibition with 71 works of Italian and international painters will be open until end of May at the capital Tirana's National Gallery of Arts. "Bringing the work of some of the most known world painters in Tirana was a challenge and a dream come true," gallery director Rubens Shima told The Associated Press. [AP photo]

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