Battle to save early Hepworth masterpiece carved against the backdrop of world war

A fundraising drive with a target of almost £3m is under way to prevent a Barbara Hepworth masterpiece being sold to a private buyer and taken out of the UK.

- Lanre Bakare

Art Fund, the charity that secures art for public collections while providing financial support for museums and the Hepworth Wakefield, is trying to secure the funds to keep Sculpture with Colour (Deep Blue and Red) in the UK.

The piece, which Hepworth created during the second world war while she was living in Cornwall, was sold at auction by Christie's last March for £3.8m.

But the UK government placed an export bar on the sculpture, which gives the institutions until August to match the money the private buyer who plans to take the piece abroad was willing to pay. Art Fund has provided £750,000 but another £2.9m needs to be found before the deadline of 27 August.

Eleanor Clayton, senior curator at the Hepworth Wakefield and a Barbara Hepworth specialist, said the sculpture by the Wakefield-born artist must be kept in the UK so future generations could see it on display.