Banksy: Season’s Greetings could be broken up for move

An original Banksy painted on the side of a garage in Wales could be broken up and moved to England.

Season's Greetings was bought by John Brandler after it appeared in Port Talbot in 2018 and taken to a building in the town.

But an agreement to keep it there has expired, and Mr Brandler wants it taken to Ipswich next week.

Actor Michael Sheen said it followed "an old story" of items with "real value" being moved over the border.

Sheen paid for security for the painting for the first few weeks, and then the Welsh government covered the cost.

The mural, which appeared on the garage of former steel worker Ian Lewis, depicts a child enjoying snow on one side, while the other reveals a fire emitting ash.

Mr Brandler said his offer to buy the painting from Mr Lewis was the lowest of five, but he had "100%" intended to keep it in the town in the hopes of creating an international street art museum.

The Welsh government then paid to move it to an unoccupied shop in Ty'r Orsaf to be viewed by the public.

Mr Brandler said he has now been told he must pay tens of thousands of pounds in construction costs to remove the front window from that site so the artwork can move elsewhere.

"As things stand, it's coming out on 8 February, being put on the back of a lorry, and it's going to Ipswich or one other place," he said.

But Mr Brandler said there was a "50/50 chance" he could break "it up into bricks" and take it "out the door in pieces".

"It means I don't have to bother moving all the steel work, it means I don't have to pay tens of thousands of pounds to take out the window. Then we would put it back together again and get it restored," he said.

"We know restorers can do wonders with paintings. This is on concrete blocks, this isn't on porcelain or an 18th Century canvas.

"It won't be difficult to put them back together again and paint out the cracks. And it means I can put them in the back of a transit [van] and drive off with it."

A spokesperson for Neath Port Talbot council said it had been quoted a fee in the region of £100,000 per year to continue to loan the artwork, something Mr Brandler denies.

Sheen, who is from Port Talbot, said he hoped Season's Greetings could still be used to bring people in the town together, even though it was leaving.

"Everyone was incredibly excited about the fact that Banksy had chosen to do a piece in the town," he said.

"There's been poetry and songs and other art works being done and that's been fantastic."

However, the actor also said there had been missed opportunities and the way the artwork was displayed for the past few years was "a little uninspiring".

Its location in the town centre has meant almost all viewings have had to take place through a window.

"I suppose, in some ways, it follows a pattern where there's something of great potential in the town, and there's a lot of great ideas, but the ambition and the vision doesn't really materialise," he said.

"I don't know the ins and outs of what happened and why that might have happened, but there's maybe a lack of ambition, a lack of follow through, a lack of financial support, and then the thing of real value tends to get extracted from the country and goes off into England, it's an old story."

Mr Brandler said the mural was only likely to re-appear in Wales "just after hell freezes over", but he did hope it could be used in new locations to spread the message about pollution and climate change.

Former Neath Port Talbot council leader Rob Jones said he hoped Banksy would consider picking a location owned by the council if he ever revisited the town.

"I think it's very difficult, when an item is in private ownership, to come to an agreement that satisfies both the private owner and the public purse," he said.

"There was a heavy financial demand in relation to keeping it in Port Talbot, and we gave to justify whether in fact spending public money for that purpose outweighs what we need to spend money on."

The council said Season's Greetings had inspired a "great interest" in street art, and it would continue to support new artists to come to Port Talbot.