Someone donated $400,000 to save an apartment that an artist spent 33 years filling with bizarre works including a lion's head fireplace

• Ron Gittins meticulously decorated his rented apartment from 1986 till his death in 2019.
• Friends feared the art-filled apartment would be lost after it was put up for auction.
• It was saved on Wednesday by an anonymous donation of £335,000 – about $400,000. 

An anonymous benefactor donated £335,000 (almost $400,000) to help campaigners buy an art-filled apartment featuring everything from an ornate Roman altar to a handmade papier-mâché lion's head. 

The apartment's former resident was artist Ron Gittins, who died in 2019. He started renting the property in Birkenhead, close to Liverpool in northwest England, in 1986, and spent the next 33 years painting every inch of the interior and filling it with bizarre artworks.