Banksy's Season's Greetings street art which was driven out of Port Talbot for good is heading to a secret storage unit where it will be temporarily hidden from the public.
The artwork, which first appeared in south Wales just before Christmas in 2018, attracted visitors from around the UK after the world-renowned street artist's works were discovered on steelworker Ian Lewis's Richmond Terrace garage, won the hearts of people across the town since it first arrived.
But its spell in the area has been dogged with controversy. After being sold to Essex-based art dealer, John Brandler, it was moved from the Taibach garage wall to Ty'r Orsaf, the site of the former police station on Station Road.
READ MORE: How much was Banksy's Season's Greetings sold for?
Mr Brandler initially said he had plans to build an "international-level street art museum" in Port Talbot, which the piece would become part of. But he later claimed those plans were rejected by Neath Port Talbot Council, leaving him "saddened".
Neath Port Talbot Council's leader, councillor Ted Latham, said keeping the artwork in the town would have cost £100,000 a year just for the loan of the piece - and more money to pay for a new home, moving and insurance costs.
Its owners revealed that attempts have been made to try and damage the art, leading to a decision to remove it from its current home and relocate it to England, a process which was carried out on Tuesday, February 8.
And it will now be located away from the public, for the meantime at least, held in a "temporary highly secured undisclosed storage unit, where it will remain until it can be freed by The Banksy Preservation DAO."
The Banksy Preservation DAO is the first initiative, launching the foundational work of The Preservation Society to ensure the future safety of artwork and artistic installations, and enable and ensure that these works are housed in museums and cultural and educational institutions in perpetuity .
Depicting a child dressed for the winter, with his arms outstretched and his tongue sticking out, the work appears to show them trying to catch snowflakes on one wall - but on the other side of the wall, it's clear that the apparent snowflakes are actually flakes from ash and smoke from a fire in a skip.
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