A building owner has removed an entire section of a shop wall that once displayed an original Banksy artwork.

Diggers moved in at the weekend to cut away the wall from the former shop before taking it away to a secret location.

The move – which is thought to have been done so the artwork can be sold – has been slammed as ‘greedy’ and ‘disrespectful’ by the local community.

In August, Banksy visited Norfolk and Suffolk and left behind a number of pieces the reclusive artist later dubbed the ‘Great British Spraycation’.

In the space of one weekend, 10 pieces appeared in East Anglian seaside towns including on the side of an old electrical shop in London Road North, Lowestoft.

The building was on the market for £300,000 at the time, but was later revalued at half a million after Bansky left the image of a child building a sandcastle with a crowbar on it.

Now, the landlord has decided to remove the artwork from the building so it can be sold.

At the weekend yellow telehandlers were seen tearing out part of the wall featuring the graffiti, which was protected with a screen and wooden boards.

Workmen then loaded the wall slab onto a truck, which took it away to an undisclosed location.

It remains unclear whether the artwork will be sold at auction or privately, though previous Banksy pieces have sold for millions under the hammer.

But the move has not gone down well with the Lowestoft community.

On Facebook, resident Brandon Eames described the removal as ‘stupidity’ and ‘disrespectful’.

He wrote: ‘Now being shipped off to sell at public auction. This is terrible. Why spend the money to protect it then just take it away…’

Fellow local Matthew Cook said: ‘Greed, lack of understanding, lack of respect.

‘Remove a painted artwork all because who did it… its a joke tbh and should have been allowed. Sets a bad precedent.’

Lynda Palmer added: ‘So so sad x perhaps he will come back and do another one ****. But somewhere it won’t be taken away from.’

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