Banksy mural returned to Folkestone after legal battle

The image appeared on a wall in Payers Park in Folkestone during the town's Triennial Festival

A mural painted by the street artist Banksy has been returned to Folkestone after a legal battle to get it back.

Art Buff, which depicts a woman staring at an empty plinth, appeared on a wall in the Kent town in September 2014.

Soon after it was painted, an image of a penis was daubed on the artwork, but it was not permanently damaged.

The owners of the wall in Payers Park shipped it to the US two months later and put it up for sale, but a High Court judge ruled it should return.

It is not known where the artwork will be displayed.

The image was vandalised soon after it appeared

It had appeared in the heart of Folkestone's Creative Quarter during the 2014 Folkestone Triennial.

The tenants of the building, Dreamland Leisure Limited, a company linked to the park owners, the Godden family, arranged for Art Buff to be cut out of the property before the Triennial had ended.

The Creative Foundation, a charity which runs the art event, began legal proceedings and successfully obtained an injunction in the High Court against Dreamland Leisure Limited and Jeremy and Jordan Godden, preventing them from selling or otherwise dealing with it.

It was then held in a specialist safe storage facility before being returned to Folkestone on Tuesday.