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Yard Gets 'Upright Motive No. 8'

By James R. Beniger

Traditionally Harvard has been very fussy about what it places in the historic Yard--a Chinese stone dragon, a replica of an old pump, a statue of the young John Harvard. Something new has been added--a seven-foot, 700-pound "Upright Motive No. 8" by British sculptor Henry Moore.

One bright day last summer, Henry G. Berg, Assistant to the Fogg Art Museum Director, wandered past the just-completed brick courtyard in front of Lehman Hall and decided it was the perfect place for the bronze sculpture, then gathering dust in the Fogg basement.

"The Fogg has several pieces I would like to see placed outside," Berg said yesterday, "but I realize that the Yard is fairly sacrosanct, and we must be careful we don't fill it up with bric-a-brac. I don't want to encourage controversy."

For this reason, Berg had the sculpture bolted to the Lehman courtyard two weeks ago on a "trial basis." If reaction is favorable--and that means the reaction of President Pusey, the University Planning Committee, and Thomas E. Crooks '49, Master of Dudley House--the piece will be permanently anchored in a massive concrete block.

Berg believes the piece to be a bronze casting of a plaster original and does not know whether other copies exist. "It is well-suited for its present location," he said, and predicted it will remain in the Yard. "I think it's spectacular--I love it."

"I would opt for keeping the sculpture," agreed Master Crooks. "I wouldn't want to see very much statuary in the Yard, but there's room for this piece. I only hope it survives Dartmouth weekend."

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