Cash-strapped UK officials sell Henry Moore statue
Nov 7, 2012, 11:00 PM
LONDON (AP) – A cash-strapped authority in east London says it’s selling a valuable Henry Moore statue over the objections of leading British arts figures including director Danny Boyle.
London’s Tower Hamlets Council said late Wednesday that “Draped Seated Woman,” which stood for years on a public housing complex in the city’s East End, would be sold “due to the massive government cuts we are facing.”
Moore, who died in 1986, was one of Britain’s best-known 20th-century artists; he sold the sculpture to the council’s predecessor in 1960 for a token price in order to enrich the lives of the area’s poorer residents.
The statue’s estimated value ranges from 5 million pounds to 20 million pounds ($8 million to $32 million).
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