Creatives back £3.8m fundraising appeal to save Hepworth work

COMEDIAN Jenny Eclair and sculptor Sir Antony Gormley are among the backers of a £3.8 million fund-raiser to save a Dame Barbara Hepworth artwork "for the nation".

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Sculpture With Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue And Red, created in the 1940s, was auctioned by Christie's in March last year for an undisclosed sum, believed to run into the millions of pounds.

Toward the end of the year the Government imposed a temporary export bar, preventing it from leaving the UK and allowing time for a UK gallery to acquire it.

The Hepworth Wakefield art museum and national charity Art Fund have now launched an appeal with the aim of permanently displaying the work in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, Hepworth's birthplace.