The search is on for a secure place to install Henry Moore’s “Old Flo” in east London after the Court of Appeal upheld last year’s decision that the £20m bronze belongs to Tower Hamlets.
“We need to find a location that’s safe where people can see it. It depends on getting the right insurance. We need to do it thoughtfully, rather than rapidly—because there’s a history of these things being spirited away in the dead of night and melted down,” the local mayor John Biggs told the East London Advertiser.
The Museum of London Docklands and the Canary Wharf estate, which has a strong security presence, have been earmarked as possible sites. It is hoped the one-and-a-half tonne sculpture will be returned to London by the end of the year.
Last July, the High Court in London ruled that Tower Hamlets Council was the legal owner of Draped Seated Woman (1957-58), affectionately known as “Old Flo” by locals. The decision appeared to end a long-running legal battle with Bromley Council in south London, which had also claimed ownership. However, Bromley mounted an appeal, but the Court of Appeal threw it out on 19 May.
The dispute began after the former mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman, consigned the work to auction in February 2013. The proposed sale sparked protests from the film producer Danny Boyle and Henry Moore’s own daughter Mary Moore, as well as the Henry Moore Foundation, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and the Tate. The auction was postponed after the Art Fund charity and the Museum of London discovered evidence that suggested ownership of the sculpture lay with Bromley.
Reversing his predecessor’s decision to sell the work, Biggs said last summer: “[the work] belongs to the people of east London and should be available locally for public enjoyment.”
London County Council originally bought the sculpture for £6,000 in 1962. It was sited at the working class Stifford Estate in east London until 1997, when the estate was demolished and the sculpture moved to Yorkshire Sculpture Park for safekeeping, where it remains.