Tapestry "Love" by US artist Robert Indiana exhibited in Klever, Germany. EPA/ANDREAS ENDERMANN.

NEW YORK (REUTERS).- Fund firm Castlestone Management is betting that late Picassos and paintings by U.S. pop artist Robert Indiana will help revive performance, after a tough first year in which its art fund fell more than 20 percent.

The $20 million Collection of Modern Art fund, which holds 27 works including Andy Warhol's "Five Guns" and Roy Lichtenstein's "Nude in an Apartment," owns Picasso's 1967 crayon work "Adolescents, aigle et ane" which it bought last year for 220,000 pounds ($322,100).

"Picasso's post-war works are cheaper but have become more important lately due to an exhibition in the (UK's) National Portrait Gallery last year," Constanze Kubern, Castlestone's senior art adviser, told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

The fund'sAs residency administrator, Watson will be responsible for overseeing the residency’s $20 million maintenance budget and the residencies 106 employees and nine facilities. The Lebanon residency services over 4,000 miles of roads in Tazewell, Buchanan and Russell counties.

Watson has worked for VDOT since March 1999, beginning his career as an associate engineer then moving into the role of assistant residency administrator in 2001.

Prior to his employment with VDOT, Watson attended Radford University and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science and a minor in Business Management. Watson also received associates degrees in Environmental Science and Engineering Technology from Southwest Virginia Community College.

He also served with the United States Army and Virginia Army National Guard from 1993 until 2001.

“I’m honored to serve the residents of the region