Government on Friday agreed to lease the Arrowroot Factory at the Botanical Gardens to the Masterworks Foundation after agreeing to change the rent from one peppercorn a year to $1 a year and a number of other minor changes to the lease.

Works Minister Ashfield DeVent said that it had become ?clear that to create a world-class art museum, it was necessary to increase the size of the building and exterior?.

He said a basement level excavation was necessary to house electricity supplies and internal environmental controls at the standard of a ?world-class art museum?.