A Calling Card Named Henry Moore : Art: An open-air exhibition will offer 10 works by the British master and mark the debut of powerhouse gallery PaceWildenstein’s Beverly Hills operation.

If you have guessed that the shrouded hulks installed last week on Beverly Hills City Hall’s front lawn and nearby parkways are important pieces of sculpture, you are right. On Friday the wraps will be removed, revealing 10 large-scale works by the late British artist Henry Moore, a towering figure in modern art history known for infusing sculpture with muscular vitality and a romantic sensibility.

And yes, a major effort was required to put the massive bronze and stone works on public view in Beverly Hills, where they will remain through mid-August. Eight of the pieces--some of which weigh several tons--have been transported from England, France, Switzerland and the eastern United States; the other two were borrowed from California private collections.

“Henry Moore: Monumental Sculptures” is billed as the West Coast’s first exhibition of Moore’s large-scale sculpture on public grounds. In honor of the opening, the Beverly Hills City Council has proclaimed Friday as Henry Moore Day.

But there’s another, less obvious part of the story that’s of keen interest in art circles. The exhibition marks the debut of PaceWildenstein’s new operation in Beverly Hills.

The powerhouse art gallery, said to be the world’s largest, was formed in 1993 by a merger of Wildenstein & Co., a Paris-based dealer of Impressionist and Old Master works, and Pace Gallery of New York, a major contemporary art dealership. The firm’s eagerly awaited West Coast space, scheduled to open in September at 9540 Wilshire Blvd., is expected to enhance the local gallery scene with a prestigious showcase for a broad historical sweep of high-quality art.

Plans for PaceWildenstein Los Angeles were announced about 18 months ago, and the Beverly Hills location was secured a few months later, but it has taken time to renovate the building, recruit staff and plan the gallery’s program. Eager to get some visibility while construction is under way, the gallery has staged the Moore affair to announce its arrival and to whet the public’s appetite for future exhibitions.

The choice of Moore was logical, according to Marc Selwyn, director of PaceWildenstein Los Angeles. “We were thinking about what we could do without a gallery to introduce ourselves and set a tone for our involvement with the community,” he says. “It had to be outdoor sculpture. Henry Moore is recognized as the most important public sculptor of the 20th Century and we happen to represent his estate, so it made a lot of sense to show his work.”

Moore is “an unassailable artist” whose work is accepted both by traditional art collectors and the avant-garde, according to Selwyn. The Moore exhibition “makes a nice contrast with the gallery’s September opening show of work by Chuck Close, who isn’t as well known to our older, more traditional clientele,” he says.

Launching the American West Coast operation with a British artist also links the new gallery with another PaceWildenstein outpost, scheduled to open in April in London, Selwyn says. David Grob, director of PaceWildenstein London, coordinated loans of Moore’s work from England and Europe, while Selwyn organized the exhibition and handled loans from U.S. collections.

The outdoor show is the result of an effort that began last November, when Selwyn approached Vicki Reynolds, during her term as mayor of Beverly Hills. She welcomed his proposal, so he took it to the City Council and got an enthusiastic response. “The council was very supportive from Day 1,” he says. The city is providing security for the sculptures, but Pace-Wildenstein is paying all other costs of the exhibition.

“It’s a unique opportunity that not only announces the arrival of PaceWildenstein but adds a new dimension of cultural appreciation to the city,” Reynolds says. “To have sculpture of such renown and quality available to the public in our parks is a rare privilege.”

Once the council had approved the project, Selwyn and Grob got busy locating works for the show and arranging loans, with the help of Moore’s daughter, Mary Moore Danowski, and the Henry Moore Foundation.

The late artist called sculpture “an art of the open air.” He is frequently quoted as saying: “I would rather have a piece of my sculpture put in a landscape, almost any landscape, than in, or on, the most beautiful building I know.”

Danowski, who arrived in Los Angeles earlier this week, says she is very pleased with the exhibition and that her father would have liked it too. The “human scale” of the verdant setting, which attracts pedestrians and joggers, suits the sculptures well, she says.

The show provides “a very representative spread of different themes and forms, from abstraction to more figurative works,” she says. “The sculptures will have an enormous audience of people who don’t consider themselves art lovers. People who see the sculptures every day will become very familiar with them in an informal way. They will be able to explore the sculptural forms and compare different works. I think that’s a very valuable opportunity.”

The exhibition includes pieces made from 1950 to 1985-86. Four works--”Standing Figure,” “Reclining Figure: Bone Skirt,” “Reclining Figure: Angles” and “Working Model for Locking Piece”--are installed in front of City Hall, near the intersection of Crescent Drive and Santa Monica Boulevard. Six other pieces are located on parklands along Santa Monica Boulevard, between Rodeo and Crescent drives.

The works will be lighted after dark. Exhibition brochures and maps are available at the Beverly Hills Library. Docent-led tours of the show will depart from the library on Sundays at 4 p.m.