THE National Galleries of Scotland last night lost a tug-of-war with Westminster City Council over who should keep a world-famous Henry Moore sculpture.
Victory was handed to the city council by deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in a landmark planning ruling which has implications for thousands of property owners across the country.
The work, Reclining Figure, which is valued at more than #1m, was originally placed in the Grade Two-listed Time & Life Building in New Bond Street, London.
However, it was moved by the occupiers and is currently on display in the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh.
In his role as Secretary of State for the Environment, Mr Prescott decided the work was an integral part of the Time & Life Building and should not have been removed.
Mr Prescott, whose ruling follows a long planning battle by Westminster involving two public inquiries and a High Court challenge, also issued a two-month deadline for the sculpture's return.
Last night, Mr Timothy Clifford, director of the National Galleries of Scotland, said his initial reaction to the news was sadness because the Henry Moore sculpture ''looks so well with us''.
Mr Clifford said the work had been removed from the Time & Life Building in London because of the danger it could be vandalised.
He added: ''It was not thought to be integral to the building. However, it was never technically ours.
''We are extremely badly off for Henry Moore. If anyone else has one, we would like to borrow it.''
As part of the same planning decision, the deputy Prime Minister ruled several other works must also be returned to the building.
They are a #400,000 painting by Ben Nicholson, titled The Spirit of Architecture, a symbolic clock called the Astolabe, made by the Ironside brothers, and a Geoffrey Clarke sculpture called The Complexities of Man.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article