Why We Had to Sell Henry Moore’s ‘Old Flo’

There has been huge domestic and international interest in our decision to sell a much loved Henry Moore sculpture, ‘Old Flo’, that our borough bought many years ago – it wasn’t donated to us as press reports have erroneously claimed. We are not the first authority to explore raising much needed revenue at a time of austerity from selling works of art. Last year Bolton Council put up 30 five works of art to be sold, including works by Millais, Picasso and Hutchison. Back in 2006, Bury Council raised £1.4 million by selling LS Lowry’s A Riverbank. If only there was as much national media interest in the fact that we are being forced to make £100million cuts by 2015, as there has been over the proposed sale of this sculpture to mitigate the effect of some of those cuts.

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