This book is published to accompany the exhibition: 'Towards a New Laocoon' 13 May - 12 August 2007 at Henry Moore Institute. The antique group depicting the Trojan priest Laocoon and his two sons being attacked by snakes was excavated in Rome in 1506 and almost immediately put on show in the Vatican. Since that date the sculpture, its restoration, and the way it tells its story, have exerted a strong fascination for artists and writers. This exhibition reveals the Laocoon's appeal for recent British sculptors - Paolozzi, Cragg and Deacon - in terms of its intertwined forms, drama and suspense, and examines other moments of historical interaction.