A £3.8 million ($5 million) appeal has been launched to prevent a rare Barbara Hepworth sculpture from leaving the United Kingdom after it was sold to a private collector at auction in 2024. The campaign, supported by the national charity Art Fund, aims to acquire Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red (1943) for permanent public display at the Hepworth Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England—the artist’s hometown. Artists and cultural leaders including Jonathan Anderson, Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor, Rachel Whiteread, and Katy Hessel have pledged their support.
Before last year, Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red had been in a private collection since its creation. The plaster prototype for the work was destroyed, making it the only surviving version of the work. Last March, the sculpture was sold at Christie’s London for £3.54 million ($4.44 million). In December, the British government placed the work under a temporary export bar, preventing its sale outside the U.K. to allow time for a regional institution to raise the funds needed for its acquisition.
The Art Fund has already pledged £750,000 ($1.07 million) toward the campaign, alongside early commitments from some private donors and charitable organizations. However, the effort requires £2.9 million ($3.93 million) of additional funding by August 27th to prevent the sculpture from being acquired and taken overseas by the Christie’s buyer.
“Barbara Hepworth’s Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red must be saved for the nation,” Kapoor said in a statement. “Art Fund has put up a quarter of the value of this important sculpture in an extraordinary bid to keep this work in a public collection and accessible to all.”
The 1943 sculpture is a rare example of Hepworth’s wooden carvings made in the 1940s. It comprises a white, egg-like form with multi-colored strings pulled across a pale blue interior void, representing an early exploration of form, space, and color in Hepworth’s practice. It is also one of the first wooden sculptures the artist made using strings—and the only known example incorporating strings in multiple colors. Currently, the Hepworth Wakefield does not own any of the artist’s finished works from the ’40s.
“This rare and significant sculpture should be on public display in the U.K. now and for generations to come,” said Jenny Waldman, director of Art Fund. “Every museum should have the power to secure landmark works of art, but in today’s challenging funding climate, they simply cannot compete with the prices demanded on the open market.”
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