in Antiques, the leading US magazine devoted to fine homes, antique collections and precious art.

Author Eleanor H. Gustafson gives the gallery a positive review primarily for the treasures contained in its Hereward T. Watlington Collection of 15th to 19th Century European paintings and the Masterworks Collection which includes Winslow Homer's Inland Waterways.

"In Bermuda,'' she begins, "tales abound of sunken ships and buried riches, but the island has recently acquired a more accessible treasure with the opening of the Bermuda National Gallery.'' Ms Gustafson reviews the Watlington collection, written about in the August 1979 edition of Antiques, but it is the works of Homer and Georgia O'Keefe that garner her highest regard.

Homer's watercolours, completed at the start of the century, are "infused with the dazzling colours of Bermuda's azure water and brilliant vegetation,'' says the article.

The subject of his paintings include coral formations and "picturesque houses nestled on hillsides overlooking calm bays''.

Ms Gustafson praises Georgia O'Keefe's drawing, Banyan Tree Trunk, done when she visited Bermuda in 1934.

She writes that the artist was able to find "comfort from the warmth of the sun, the colours of the sea and shells and the beauty of the coral sculpted by wind and tide''.

The National Gallery is located in the East Wing of City Hall.