Rare Henry Moore could fetch $29M at auction

LONDON – One of the most famous sculptures by Henry Moore could sell for almost $30 million, and set a record for the artist at a London auction this month.

Christie’s says “Reclining Figure: Festival” could fetch between 15 million pounds and 20 million pounds ($22 million and $29 million) at a June 30 sale.

The sinuous, 2.3 metre (7 1/2 foot) -long bronze of a reclining woman was created for the 1951 Festival of Britain, which signalled the country’s cultural resurgence after World War II and its austere aftermath.

Moore considered “Reclining Figure” one of his most important works, calling it the first “in which I succeeded in making form and space sculpturally inseparable.”

Moore made five bronze casts of the sculpture. One sold at Christie’s in 2012 for 19.1 million pounds ($30 million at the time), a record for the artist and for a British sculpture.

The version being sold this month has spent half a century in a private American collection.

Moore, who died in 1986, is one of Britain’s best-known 20th-century artists, and his large, fluidly curved bronzes stand in more than three dozen countries around the world.

Christie’s deputy head of modern art, Cyanne Chutkow, said “Reclining Figure: Festival” was one of Moore’s “great masterpieces.”

The June 30 sale also includes sculptures by Barbara Hepworth and Lynn Chadwick.