Henry Moore Festival of Britain bronze expected to break auction records

Exclusive: work that has divided opinion will be sold by Sotheby's with estimate of $30m-$40m

It was labelled a monstrosity" and a work of art so bad that it deserved to be interred, not displayed. But many more recognised it as a work of genius, Henry Moore considered it one of his finest, and later this year it is expected to break auction records as the most expensive sculpture made by a British artist.

Moore's bronze of a reclining semi-abstract figure stopped people in their tracks when it was first exhibited as a centrepiece of the Festival of Britain in 1951. It was startling and unsettling. Many adored it. Some hated it. A good number were amused by it.