The City's acquisition of New Zealand's only public Henry Moore, Bronze Form, was a joint venture between the Wellington Sculpture Trust, Fletcher Challenge Corporation and the Wellington City Council. The Mayor, the head of Fletcher Challenge Sir Ron Trotter and the Trust agreed to collaborate to obtain a Henry Moore for the city. Dr Ian Prior, deputy chairman of the Trust, visited Henry Moore in England in 1987 and arranged for the city to purchase Bronze Form. The Trust also arranged for the transport of the work to New Zealand with the assistance of the New Zealand Shipping Corporation, and other logistic matters. Fletcher Challenge agreed to meet the purchase price of $NZ1 million, supported by an offsetting arrangement with the City Council under the City's Art Bonus scheme. The Council with help from the Henry Moore Foundation installed the work and assumed ownership and responsibility for future maintenance. Bronze Form was placed in Midland Park in the centre of the city in 1988, then moved to its present site in 1995. "Henry Moore (1898 - 1986) was one of the outstanding sculptors of the 20th century. His work has had a strong influence on contemporary figural sculpture. "The most important and lasting influence on Moore's work was the world of nature. 'The human figure', he wrote, 'is what interests me most deeply, but I have found principles of form and rhythm from the study of natural objects, such as pebbles, rocks, bones, trees, plants.' "In the early 1980's Moore developed an opened-out three part sculpture, where an interal 'profile form' became the central figure in Figure in a Shelter. He later decided that the Bronze Form of Figure in a Shelter was a piece that could be totally independent and stand in its own right. There were six cast and the one in Wellington is No 4." Malcolm Woodward, Conservator, Henry Moore Foundation
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