TATE Liverpool was awarded the Freedom of the City last night, and said “thank you” by donating a rare Sir Peter Blake work.

The piece, from the man who famously designed The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s album sleeve, was commissioned to celebrate the museum’s twentieth anniversary in 2008.

Presenting the gift, director of the Tate, Sir Nicholas Serota, spoke of the “very great honour” the gallery had just received.

Liverpool is the first of the country’s four Tate galleries to be awarded a Freedom of the City.

Sir Nicholas described the recognition as “extraordinary”.

He said other Tate galleries had followed in Liverpool’s footsteps in establishing British artists.

“It has, beyond all other Tates, taken its work outside the gallery to schools, hospitals, prisons and in that it has taken the lead from the people of Liverpool,” he said.

Dr Christoph Grunenberg, director of Tate Liverpool since 2001, said Sir Peter Blake was a very generous artist and was commissioned for the piece because of his long association with the city.

“Peter was a pop artist before pop art really existed,” he said. “He has always worked with colour and I think that is what this work reflects.

“His work is about collage. It is about getting things from different sources.”

Dr Grunenberg explained that the piece with its different style for each letter represented the variety of work in Tate Liverpool

Sir Peter, a long-serving supporter of the modern art gallery, only made two editions of the work, one of which hangs in the Tate, with the other staying in the Town Hall.

The Freedom Roll, which gives its recipients the right to herd their sheep down Dale Street, was presented to the museum’s directors in the Town Hall.