Charity brings in lawyers over plan for council to sell Henry Moore sculpture

An arts charity has called in its lawyers over the London Borough of Tower Hamlets’ plans to sell a Henry Moore sculpture valued at £17m.

The council plans to sell Draped Seated Woman, also known as ‘Old Flo’, as part of its efforts to deal with cuts to government funding. The authority needs to save £100m by 2013/14.

The Art Fund, which has instructed law firm Farrer & Co, said: “After initial research, it is not clear that Tower Hamlets has title to the sculpture. Our research suggests that works of public art were handled separately from land and buildings when both the London County Council and the Greater London Council were dissolved.  

“For this reason our lawyers have been in touch with the council to ask for more information, which they have so far failed to provide. The council would have surely addressed this before commissioning a sale through Christie’s, and should be easily and quickly able to provide evidence of ownership.”

The charity rejected claims from Tower Hamlets that the move was a “‘desperate publicity stunt”. It said: “Ownership must be established beyond reasonable doubt before a work of art can be sold. No-one has previously queried who owns ‘Old Flo’, as no-one has previously wanted to sell it.”

The Arts Fund said it also questioned the way in which the decision to sell was reached. In particular, it described Tower Hamlets’s claims that the sculpture was ‘uninsurable’ as “simply not true”.

The charity continued: “The council received several offers to display, conserve and insure ‘Old Flo’, including from the Museum of London (where it could form the centrepiece of its Docklands Museum within the borough and be freely available to all), but it has refused to consider these. We believe the council owes it to the people of Tower Hamlets to consider all options before reaching a decision.”

The Arts Fund warned that if the sale went through through unchallenged, then it would set a precedent for other councils to follow suit.

Tower Hamlets said the decision to sell the Henry Moore had been a tough one, but was necessary because of government cuts and the high cost of bringing it back to the borough after 15 years at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

The council’s Mayor, Lutfur Rahman, said: “It was with considerable regret that I made the decision to sell ‘Old Flo’ but I have a duty to ensure residents do not suffer the brunt of the horrendous cuts being imposed on us.

“For the Art Fund to challenge our ownership after a period of nearly thirty years seems to be a desperate PR stunt. First we had members of the art world telling a poverty stricken borough not to sell the sculpture, then we were told to place Old Flo out of reach of borough residents in an inaccessible inner courtyard of the Barbican and now they say we do not even own it!”

Tower Hamlets pointed to other councils having put art works up for sale. They included Bolton Council, which last year sought to sell works by Millais, Picasso and Hutchison.

‘Old Flo’ was bought for £7,400 in 1962 by London County Council for the Stifford Estate.

Tower Hamlets said ownership transferred to it after the abolition of London County Counciland then the GLC in 1986. 

“The London Government Act 1985 vested all residuary property, rights and liabilities to Tower Hamlets as the appropriate body,” it said.

The estate was demolished in 1997, and the sculpture loaned to Yorkshire Sculpture Park.