A West Yorkshire art gallery is attempting to raise sufficient funds to purchase a Dame Barbara Hepworth sculpture "for the nation".The Hepworth Wakefield wants to buy Sculpture With Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue And Red, created in the 1940s, in order for it to go on permanent public display.The oval-shaped piece, which sold for more than £3.5m in 2024, was later given a temporary export bar preventing it from leaving the country - providing a UK gallery the chance to acquire it. The Art Fund charity has offered £750,000 towards the cost, however a further £2.9m is required before a 27 August deadline.If the target was not met, the sculpture by the Wakefield-born artist would go to a private buyer and be taken overseas.The appeal is backed by artists and creatives including Sir Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor, Jonathan Anderson, Richard Deacon, Katy Hessel, Veronica Ryan, Joanna Scanlan and Dame Rachel Whiteread.The piece is one of only a handful of wooden carvings made by the artist during the 1940s, when she lived in St Ives, Cornwall, with her young family.