Minister for Arts Heather Humphreys has announced a grant of €371,000 to the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Imma) to carry out improvement works at the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham.

The works are being carried out in advance of a major Lucian Freud exhibition due to take place there from October.

The works, which are on loan from private collections, will be presented in a dedicated Freud Centre in the museum’s Garden Galleries for five years. They will include a selection of Freud’s finest paintings as well as numerous etchings ranging across six decades.

Ms Humphreys described the exhibition as a “major coup” for Imma, and said it had the potential to open up the museum to a wider audience.

“In order to house the artworks in suitable and secure conditions, works must be carried out on the Garden Galleries,” she said.

“The Freud project offers huge opportunities for Irish audiences of all ages to experience the work of this great artist.”