Picasso Exhibition Seen By 450,000 aix Iue -ate kallery, LonUon, yesterday, as some of the last vWisitors to the Picasso exhibition looked at the paintings. I Interest in the Picasso exhibition arranged by the Arts Council at the Tate Gallery, which ended last -night, was maintained up ,to the hour of cosing. Yesterday 6,175 visitorspaid 3s. 6d. each to see 'the paintings. Un-til ?he early evening there was za queue waiting to enter. The total nulmber attending since the exhibition opened on July 6 was 459,502, an exhibition record for the Tate. An official told Thre Times that the only period when there was a falling off in the attendance figures was just after the announcement that some of Picasso's Paintings were being seDt from Russia. "After these had joined the exhibition " he said, " the attendance picked up again. Our largest total for a day was last Thurs- day, when 10,700 paid for admission. On Friday we also topped the 10,000 mark. We have averaged daily between 5,000 and 6,000 since the exhibition opened. Satur- day evenings and Sunday evenings have usually been our quiet times, but this weekend people have come crowding in for a last look at Picasso's works before they are returned to their owvners." The majority of the visitors last evening appearod to be in their early twenlties Many parents had brought their children and an ice-cream stall was doing brisk trade at the foot of the steps to the gallery in the street; Visitors' cars stretched for hundreds of yards along the Embankment. The trustees of the Tate hope to retain one of the paintings on loan permanently for the gallery if there is sufficient public support. PICASSO EXHIBITION SEEN BY 450,000 I TATE GALLERY RECORD