Banksy artwork in Port Talbot to be moved 220 miles to England

'The Seasons Greetings' was sprayed on a garage

A Banksy artwork in south Wales is set to be moved more than 200 miles to an English city.

'The Seasons Greetings' first appeared on a garage wall in Port Talbot three years ago and depicts a child playing under falling ash that appears as snow.

Garage owner Ian Lewis initially struggled to cope with the droves of tourists flocking to the artwork and so sold it to collector John Brandler.

The gallery owner paid a six-figure sum for the piece to be cut from a wall and agreed to keep it in Port Talbot for at least three years.

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He now claims Neath Port Talbot Council did not agree a deal to keep the artwork in the steel town because they are 'embarrassed' by the Bristol artist's anti-pollution message.

The deal will come to an end in January 2022, and the work is set to appear at an exhibition 220 miles away in Peterborough.Mr Brandler said he wanted to create a permanent art museum in the town with the Banksy as the centre-piece but had failed to reach an agreement.

He said: "I was going bring an international museum to Port Talbot and they didn't want it because Banksy isn't Welsh."The people of Port Talbot wanted it, it would have created jobs, bringing 150,000 people into the town and I wanted to include local businesses in the museum.

When the Banksy appeared in Port Talbot, it attracted thousands of people to the area

"The people of the town who we met were kind and genuine and welcoming and wanted it to happen and the letting agency Pobl gave us the building and did everything they could to make it happen."But trying was putting me into an early grave, it put too much stress on me, I was getting chest pain. When I pulled out, all of that disappeared."They don't want it because Season's Greetings is about pollution."

Council statement

A spokesperson for Neath Port Talbot Council said they were grateful for the artwork's time in the town.Neath Port Talbot Council said: "The council wishes the owner of Season’s Greetings well and is grateful so many people had the chance to view it here in the time it was loaned to us.

"The future of Season’s Greetings is now of course a matter for Mr Brandler.”