Charity hopes to raise nearly £3m to keep Barbara Hepworth sculpture in UK

Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red, 1943. Barbara Hepworth said the strings represented the tension she felt between ‘myself and the sea, the wind or the hills’. Photograph: Betty Saunders/Barbara Hepworth Estate

A fundraising drive with a target of almost £3m is under way to prevent a Barbara Hepworth masterpiece from being sold to a private buyer and taken out of the UK.

Art Fund, the charity that secures art for public collections while providing financial support for museums and the Hepworth Wakefield, is trying to secure the funds in order to keep Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red in the UK.