One of the world's greatest art collections hides behind this fence

New York

THE drab free port zone near the Geneva city centre - a compound of blocky grey- and-vanilla warehouses surrounded by train tracks, roads and a barbed-wire fence - looks like the kind of place where beauty goes to die. But within its walls, crated or sealed cheek by jowl in cramped storage vaults, are more than a million of some of the most exquisite artworks ever made.

Treasures from the glory days of ancient Rome. Museum-quality paintings by old masters. An estimated 1,000 works by Picasso.