Barbara Hepworth’s wartime sculpture saved for the nation

The people of West Yorkshire will retain their access to a rare Barbara Hepworth sculpture carved during World War Two.

Sculpture With Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue And Red is to go on permanent public display in Hepworth’s home town of Wakefield, after a local gallery named after the artist raised £3.8 million to buy the piece.

The sculpture had been at risk of leaving the country when it was sold to an anonymous bidder at Christie’s a year ago for £3.5m, before a temporary export ban allowed the Hepworth Wakefield the chance to raise funds to prevent the loss.

It sees the sculpture become a part of the UK’s national collection of art, viewable to the public for the first time since its creation in 1943 — a time when Hepworth, like many other artists, was battling with scant access to materials for her work.

The Hepworth Wakefield gallery inspired more than 2,800 donations from members of the public, in addition to £1.89m in support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and a £75,000 grant from Art Fund.

Olivia Colling, interim director and chief executive at the Hepworth Wakefield, said: “Barbara Hepworth often talked about her need to be part of a community and its proactive development.

“We are enormously grateful for the generosity people have shown in helping us to bring this extremely rare and important work to Wakefield.”