Dame Barbara Hepworth’s birthplace on the market for £70k

The record price for her work is £3.2m but her birthplace is likely to be sold for just a fraction of that when it goes under the hammer next month.

The guide price for the two-bedroom terrace on Duke of York Avenue, is between £60,000 and £70,000, including the prestigious Wakefield Civic Society blue plaque, which is above the front door.

James Pank, director and auctioneer at Auction House Leeds, said: “We are expecting quite a strong response on this property when it goes to auction.

“We have already had two open-viewings where a lot of people attended and we’ve also had a lot of interest in terms of the number of phone calls we’ve had.”

Dame Barbara was born at the house on January 10, 1903.

She won a scholarship at Leeds School of Art, where she studied with Castleford born sculptor Henry Moore.

Mr Pank said: “I am hoping it’s going to be a landlord or a buyer but we have had no interest from any museums or cultural authorities.

“Unless there is someone that’s not been in touch who is going to turn up at the auction and buy it, then I think it will be sold to a family.”

The property has a living room, dining room, kitchen and pantry.

On the first foor there are two bedrooms and a bathroom and Mr Pank said the attic could easily be converted to increase the number of bedrooms.

After studying alongside Mr Moore in Leeds, Dame Barbara lived in Rome and learnt how to carve marble.

She then moved to London and she gave birth to triplets in 1934 before moving to St Ives, Cornwall in 1939.

Dame Barbara died in a fire at her St Ives home in May 1975 aged of 72.

The Hepworth Wakefield art gallery and museum opened in 2011.