A valuable bronze artwork by Henry Moore has been stolen from an open air sculpture park.

Standing Figure, created in 1950, was one of four Moore pieces in Glenkiln Sculpture Park, in Lincluden Estate by the Glenkiln Reservoir in Shawhead, Dumfries and Galloway.

The park also includes his world renowned King and Queen sculpture, and other works by Auguste Rodin and Jacob Epstein.

Police said the piece was worth a "high value", and are appealing for anyone who saw any suspicious people or vehicles in the Glenkiln Reservoir area on these dates to contact them.

Standing Figure is among a string of works by the abstract artist, who died in 1986 aged 88, to be targeted by thieves in recent years.

Two men were jailed for a year in 2012 for stealing a sculpture called Sundial and the bronze plinth of another work from the grounds of the Henry Moore Foundation in Much Hadham.

In 2010, Moore's £45,000 painting Three Reclining Figures On Pedestals was one of three works of art worth a combined £230,000 stolen from a gallery in Broadway, Worcestershire.

The Henry Moore Foundation also carried out a security review following the theft of a two-ton piece called Reclining Figure in December 2005.

The foundation was established by the artist in 1977 to encourage public appreciation of the visual arts.

His sculpture Knife Edge, which stands on Abingdon Green outside the Houses of Parliament, often appears in the background of television interviews and is believed to be one of the most televised works of art in the country.

The sculpture park was created by local landowner Sir William Keswick between 1951 and 1976.

Sir William bought Standing Figure after seeing it in an exhibition, and Moore was personally "thrilled" with the artwork's open air location.

In an excerpt from a 1975 retrospective of his work on the Henry Moore Foundation website, Moore said: "Sir William Keswick came to me after he had seen this piece in an exhibition (it may have been the second Battersea Park exhibition).

"He told me about his sheep farm in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, and said its large acreage was unsuitable for agricultural farming because the ground was too rocky.

"I don't know whether he got the idea to put sculpture on his sheep farm after he saw the Battersea Park open-air exhibition, or whether he was inspired by his experiences in China, where he had lived for many years, and where, he said, there are many examples of monumental sculptures in the open air.

"In any case, he bought this piece to put on his farm in Scotland.

"He placed the sculpture himself on an existing outcrop of rock. Later I went up there and was thrilled with the beautiful landscape and at how well he had sited 'Yon Figure' (the sculpture's local name)."