The last piece of a Banksy mural painted on a wall in Liverpool city centre has now been removed, with its new destination unknown.
Banksy's "Love Plane" was one of the best-known pieces of Liverpool street art before the plane itself was cut out of the wall and moved to an art gallery in 2016. Originally, only the love plane itself was taken, with its trail, in the shape of a love heart, remaining on the Rumford Street wall.
However, this week people were shocked as the remaining pieces of the street art, specifically the heart segment, were "ripped" from the wall. The location of the heart is currently unknown.
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Western Approaches, a WW2 museum that looks out onto the wall where the artwork once was, posted on its Twitter page about the loss of the original work and sent a touching message to its original artist, Banksy. The posts said: "Some years back, the artist Banksy painted a mural opposite our entrance.
"An old plane that was clearly struggling for take-off, but through it's troubles, still managed to leave behind an imperfect but beautiful heart.
"It was christened 'The Love Plane' , but for us, we felt it also represented something of the spirit of the city of Liverpool in the Second World War. Through the worst of times; it was love and enduring efforts that pulled us through.
"Sadly, the plane was ripped off the wall and sold to the highest bidder a while ago, leaving behind just the smoke-trailed heart. Yet even on its own, this heart still had some meaning to the people that passed by it every day.
"This week they came and took the heart. We just want to raise a glass in thanks to Banksy for his original work."
The ECHO has since confirmed that NCP Car Parks, which the artwork looked over, is not responsible for the removal of the artwork as the business doesn't own the wall. However, the exact whereabouts of the artwork remains unknown.
The ECHO is currently pursuing several lines of enquiry to locate the whereabouts of the missing street art.
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