Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore sculptures to grace St James’s Square before sale

A Westminster square is being transformed into an open-air art gallery with £5 million worth of sculptures on show before they go under the hammer at Christie’s.

Work by Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Anthony Caro are among the sculptures that will be exhibited in St James’s Square for more than a month.

The square, a short walk from Christie’s King Street offices, will become home to Hepworth’s Curved Form (Bryher II) which is expected to fetch up to £2.5 million.

Other casts of the sculpture, which dates from 1961, are held in collections around the world including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Also in the garden will be Elisabeth Frink’s Horse, valued at around £1 million, which was originally commissioned by the Earl of March for Goodwood Racecourse in Sussex.

Exhibition curator Nicholas Orchard said it offered art lovers the chance to see work by some of the world’s greatest sculptors “within the landscape surroundings that the artists intended for them”.

He said: “It is an honour to present these pieces within the prestigious garden setting of St James’s Square at a moment when the artworks will be complemented by the flora and fauna of this landscape.”

The show runs from May 23 to June 29 and the works will be auctioned at Christie’s Modern British & Irish Art Evening Sale at the end of June.