Prato, ends conservation work on Henry Moore monument

In Prato , the cleaning of Squared Shape with a Cut, a marble work by Henry Moore (Castleford, 1898 - Perry Green, 1986), is finished: the conservation work that began last Aug. 28 is over, and now the sculpture, which has stood in Piazza San Marco in the center of Prato since 1974, freed from scaffolding, is once again on view ahead of the 50th anniversary of its placement in the textile capital city. Henry Moore’s work, which rose to fame after the 1972 Florentine exhibition at Forte Belvedere, has over time become one of Prato’s symbols. However, exposure to atmospheric agents and pollutants means that periodic interventions are needed to monitor the work’s “health status.” The intervention, financed thanks to a liberal disbursement from a private citizen, was carried out by Laura Conca Restauri, and saw - twelve years after the last restoration - extensive cleaning work on the entire marble surface, followed by consolidation, plastering, volumetric additions and the application of a siloxane-based water-repellent breathable protective film.

And, now, the Squared Shape with Cut has been cleaned up in time to be able to celebrate-in 2024-the 50th anniversary of its arrival in Prato. It was in fact June 22, 1974, when, in a solemn official ceremony, the work was placed in the center of Piazza San Marco, after being purchased by the city administration, the Azienda di Turismo and the Cassa di Risparmio di Prato thanks to the intercession of two Prato collectors, Giuliano Gori and Loriano Bertini (who later also assisted in the purchase).

The arrival in Prato of Squared Shape with Cut, as anticipated, was subsequent to the major 1972 exhibition that the city of Florence dedicated to Moore at Forte Belvedere, considered one of the ten most important exhibitions of the entire twentieth century, which decreed the definitive consecration of the British sculptor as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century.

And, among Moore’s works exhibited at Fort Belvedere, one stood out above all others: the Square Form with Cut ("Square Form with Cut "), a monumental sculpture composed of thirty blocks of white marble from Mount Altissimo in the Apuan Alps, precisely from the Mossa quarry, made at the Henraux workshop in Querceta; the sculpture is the most monumental of those created in those years by Henry Moore, with an increasingly evident aspiration to an architectural form. A work that is now has been inextricably linked to Prato for almost half a century: from the first years of its installation, the Square Shape with Cut became in fact a symbol of the city, and in particular of its aspiration to modernity and industrial progress. Prato City Councillor for Culture Simone Mangani comments, “The work arrived in the city thanks to the work and interest of many collectors, including Giuliano Gori, and the City of Prato and marked the beginning of the city’s great love for contemporary art that resulted almost 15 years later in the birth of the Pecci Center. Today this new restoration, which is carried out every ten years or so to restore the work from the action of atmospheric agents, takes place thanks to the anonymous donation of a citizen of Prato, a sign of the union between public and private that is renewed in the tradition of industriousness and attention to the cultural heritage and common goods of this city.”

Prato, ends conservation work on Henry Moore monument

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