Dame Barbara Hepworth sculpture set to sell for up to £3.2m

Dame Hepworth created the sculpture in 1944

An oval-shaped sculpture by Dame Barbara Hepworth is expected to fetch millions when it goes under the hammer.

The piece, created in 1944 by the Wakefield-born artist, is being sold by Christie's auction house.

Entitled Sculpture With Colour Pale Blue And Red, it is estimated to sell for between £2.2m and £3.2m.

It is one of several items created by Dame Hepworth included in the Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale due to take place in London on 20 March

Other works going under the hammer include the Landscape Sculpture, which looks like a stringed instrument, the brass sculpture Maquette For Winged Figure, and an oil and pencil work called Atlantic Form, Blue.

They are being sold at guide prices ranging from £100,000 to £1m.

At a previous sale at Christie's in New York in 2021, the late sculptor's work Parent II fetched $7.1m (£6.07m).

Several other items in the auction are expected to sell for seven-figure sums.

They include LS Lowry's painting Sunday Afternoon, which has a guide price of between £4m and £6m and is on display for the first time in 57 years.

A sculpture by Henry Moore, a Yorkshire contemporary of Dame Barbara and often seen as her biggest rival, is also expected to fetch between £800,000 and £1.2m at the sale.