Bolton Council is to spend £50,000 on measures to protect a a valuable piece of art.

CCTV cameras and security lighting are to be installed to monitor Barbara Hepworth's "Two Forms (Divided Circle)" sculpture when it returns to Bolton early in the New Year.

The sculpture has spent the last 18 months in an exhibition commemorating Hepworth's work in her home town of Wakefield and will be reinstated in the garden named after the artist next to Bolton Crown Court.

The money will also pay for a revamp of the area which will see trees thinned to make the garden more visible and benches installed to encourage visitors.

It is being spent even though the council is considering transferring the sculpture to a new site in a few years' time to fit in with their plans for a cultural quarter for the town.

Barbara Hepworth is considered to rank alongside Henry Moore as one of the great British sculptors.

She created the piece - which is now thought to be worth up to £500,000 - in 1969 and it was bought a year later for Bolton Council by the Victoria and Albert Museum and the JB Charitable Trust, established by local architects Bradshaw, Gass and Hope. The sculpture was sited outside the Crown Court building on its completion in 1984 after spending 14 years in Bolton Museum.

Work will also be carried out to provide new seating, better paving and a board explaining the origins of the sculpture to visitors.

Cllr David Wilkinson, executive member for environment at Bolton Council, said: "Hepworth is an important artist and many people will be delighted to hear this is returning to Bolton.

"Concerns have been raised around security and we thought it only right that proper precautions are taken.

"This is a fitting home for it because it is a very popular spot."