Madrid to mount major Picasso exhibit in 2008

GIRONA, Spain, Nov 16 (Reuters) Spain plans to put on one of the biggest exhibitions of works by Pablo Picasso in 2008 after reaching a deal to borrow hundreds of pieces from Paris's famed Picasso Museum.

The exhibition will bring together 400 works by the Malaga-born artist, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said today after a bilateral meeting with France.

The exhibition will be housed at the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid, home to Picasso's haunting depiction of war ''Guernica''.

Picasso lived much of his life exiled in Paris while Spain was under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. He died in France in 1973, two years before Franco died and moves began to restore democracy in his homeland.

When he died, Picasso's heirs gave many of his works to the French state to meet their inheritance tax payments. They were put together to create the Picasso Museum in Paris, now one of the most important research centres on the life of the artist.

Reuters SK VV2136