A sculpture of royalty that once stood in the Scottish countryside until it was targeted by vandals has been sold for a record-breaking sum at Christie’s auction house.
King and Queen, a pair of seated figures cast in bronze by legendary sculptor Henry Moore, fetched £26million three decades after it was decapitated in Dumfriesshire.
The auction saw the battle-scarred duo become the highest-selling piece created by the British artist, as well as the most expensive lot of the London season.
Katharine Arnold, vice chairman of 20th and 21st Century European Art, said: ‘It is incredibly rare. It’s from 1952 to 1953, and these sculptures are really sought after by collectors worldwide.
‘So where it will end up in the world, who knows?’
The sculpture was cast in 1952 ahead of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and quickly became celebrated as one of Moore’s best works.
Bought by the laird of Lincluden Estate in the 1950s, King and Queen remained in private hands, while later replicas went on display in Japan, the Netherlands, and America.
Henry Moore’s masterpiece King and Queen was sold for an astonishing £26million
The sculpture’s multi-million-pound price tag and global admiration is a far cry from its early life overlooking the Glenkiln Reservoir in southern Scotland.
In 1995, King and Queen’s heads were sawn off by a mystery vandal and later discovered in London after a frantic search involving scuba divers and metal detectors.
Although the figures were eventually repaired, the brazen vandalism prompted estate managers to tighten security around the statues and eventually remove them from public display entirely.
A Christie’s spokesman told the BBC: ‘In the spring of 1995, the work was dramatically beheaded while installed in the wild beauty of its moorland setting.
‘Though the gesture was striking, the original heads were retrieved and carefully restored under the guidance of The Henry Moore Foundation adding a powerful footnote to the history of this majestic sculpture.’
