LONDON.- "A Century of Olympic Posters", which features more than 100 posters charting the history of the Olympic Games, will be on show in the Europa Gallery in Sutton's Central Library during September and October.

Drawn mainly from the Victoria and Albert Museum's internationally renowned collection of posters, the exhibition includes many rare and beautiful examples, most of which are displayed together for the first time.

The free exhibition, which has previously been displayed in Beijing and will be moving on to other international venues, will also feature Olympic memorabilia, including the Olympic torch from the 1948 Games in London.

It is being held to coincide with the build-up to London 2012.

More than 100,000 people are expected to visit and a series of educational projects will be organised around the exhibition.

Highlights will include the pioneering official Olympic poster produced for the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, and important works by David Hockney, R.B. Kitaj, Andy Warhol and Victor Vasarely.

Councillor Graham Tope, Executive Member for Community Safety, Leisure and Libraries, said: "This is a real coup for Sutton and it is certainly the biggest exhibition that has come here for years.

"I think people who come to the exhibition will be inspired. Even people not normally interested in sport will enjoy the exhibition because the posters are snapshots in time - a visual record of sport and art, politics and place, commerce and culture. "

Also featured is Franz Würbel's design for the Berlin Olympics in 1936, where Jesse Owens won four gold medals and a Soviet-era design for the 1980 Moscow Games.

As well as the designs for the Summer Games, there will be Winter Olympic posters and protest posters and designs used by cities to support their bids to host the Games.

The posters' broad popular appeal and ability to relay messages through eye-catching and memorable imagery means that many of them are now prized souvenirs or collectable works of art and design.

"A Century of Olympic Posters" will be on show in the Europa Gallery in Sutton's Central Library from Wednesday 1 September to Sunday 31 October 2010.