Sculptures given a helping hand into gallery

Artist Lorenzo Quinn has produced a series of giant sculptures for the opening of a new London gallery.

The monumental works are so large that a crane had to be brought in to lift them into the second floor.

Quinn, son of Oscar-winning actor Anthony, was on hand to unwrap the sculptures, which were inspired by Michelangelo and other Renaissance masters of Italy, where the artist was born.

They will form the first exhibition in the Halcyon Gallery's new flagship venue at 24 Bruton Street, which opened yesterday on the gallery's 25th anniversary. It already has spaces at 29 Bruton Street and 29 New Bond Street.

Gallery founder Paul Green said: "The Georgian grandeur of the new gallery creates a magnificent stage for the exceptional programme of global names we have lined up to exhibit."

The human hand is one of the recurring themes in Quinn's work and he said: "I wanted to sculpt what is considered the hardest and most technically challenging part of the human body. The hand holds so much power - the power to love, to hate, to create, to destroy."

One of the new works, Statistics, uses 52 hands and arms in a comment on the death toll of US soldiers in Iraq.

The show is called Evolution - by coincidence the same title as an exhibition of new work by another (unrelated) Quinn, Marc, at the White Cube gallery in Mason's Yard.

Quinn, 41, was born in Rome and studied at the American Academy of Fine Arts in New York.

His previous commissions include a statue of Saint Anthony for the Vatican. His father studied art and architecture under Frank Lloyd Wright.

Evolution runs until 29 March.