Art movers hired by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts will hoist Henry Moore’s six-ton bronze sculpture, “Reclining Figure,” out of the reflecting pool on Friday night. The sculpture will reside in New Jersey while Lincoln Center pursues its redevelopment project. The sculpture will return to the pool in fall 2008.

The move will begin at 10 p.m. and continue into the wee hours of the morning. The sculpture will be lifted by crane and lowered onto a flatbed tractor-trailer parked on W. 65th Street, which will be closed. The taller of the two pieces will have to be laid on its side to make the trip to its storage location.

Besides preventing any damage to the sculpture during the lifting or transport, the most important issue is making sure that the work can be returned to the pool in the exact position that Moore, who died in 1986, intended, an art conservator who works with Lincoln Center on its sculpture collection, Marc-Christian Roussel, said.

“The sculpture’s in two parts, but Moore considered it one figure, so the relationship between the two pieces is critical,” Mr. Roussel said yesterday. “We did a 3-D digital survey of the buildings, the pool, the sculpture. I marked points on the sculpture and compiled a lot of information so we can put it back exactly as Moore placed it.”

The sculpture has been moved from the pool twice since it was installed in the 1960s. The most recent was in 2000, when the reflecting pool was restored. Prior to that, the piece was moved in the early 1980s. At that time, Mr. Roussel’s mother, who is also in the conservation business, flew to England to meet with Moore and discuss the reinstallation. “Moore had not been entirely satisfied with the original installation,” Mr. Roussel said. One of his concerns was that, because of structural problems with the pool, the water level was not as high as he had envisioned. So Mr. Roussel will keep an eye on that, too, in the current move. “It’s a matter of respecting the artist’s original intent,” he said.