The Henry Moore mystery

External Relations writer Jacqui Bealing goes on the trail of an iconic sculpture that, for a while, lived at the University of Sussex. My colleague points at his computer screen. "Whatever happened to this?" I see over his shoulder that he is looking at a grainy, black and white photograph of a sculpture that appears to be on the grass below the slopes of the University of Sussex's Library. The picture, which shows students sitting on the plinth of a bone-like arch, has been uploaded to the alumni scrapbook pages on Flickr. A caption reads: Henry Moore sculpture on campus. 1967. "Didn't he have other links with the university?" my colleague then asks.This is true.The celebrated British artist was made an honorary Doctor of Letters in 1965. As it's also the case that the sculpture is no longer here, I tell my colleague that I'll find out what happened. I'm sure it will only take a couple of emails to solve the mystery. 'Disrespected'. My first approach is to Emeritus History of Art Professor David Mellor , who not only knows about art, but was also a student at Sussex in the late Sixties. "This episode in Sussex's history is still not clear - at least in my mind!" he replies. "I recall seeing the sculpture in my first year or two, in 1967-9. The rumour about its disappearance - a little while later - was that Henry Moore was distressed that it had been treated in some disparaging way or just 'disrespected' and he had withdrawn his loan/gift. "We weren't too upset by this," continues Professor Mellor, "because, as Art History students, Moore was ancient history and Tony Caro and the St. Martins sculptors (together with Robert Smithson in the US) were our guiding stars." Disrespected?