Haringey Trades Council has made fresh calls for the Turnpike Lane Banksy to be returned to the borough as the auction day gets closer.
Slave Labour, which shows a young boy making Union Jack bunting, is expected to fetch up to £1million at the event, hosted by the Sincura Group in Covent Garden on June 2.
Earlier this month, the group’s director, Tony Baxter, told the Haringey Independent he hopes the piece would be bought by a Londoner and donated back to the borough.
However, Keith Flett, Haringey’s TUC secretary, thinks this is unlikely to happen.
He said: “The reported sale price of $1m brings clarity to events.
“No one in their right mind would pay that and simply give the piece back to the people of Haringey.
“It’s time the sale was stopped and the Banksy returned to Wood Green.”
If the graffiti art is not bought at the London auction it will be sent to America where a buyer has already been found.
The MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, Lynne Featherstone, has appealed directly to the owner and asked them not to sell the piece.
She said: “We want our Banksy back in its rightful place – the streets and community of Turnpike Lane.
“So I make this direct plea to the owners of the Banksy piece.
“You have this one last chance to do the right thing.
“You have deprived a community of an asset that was given to us for free and greatly enhanced an area that needed it.
“I call on you, and your consciences, to pull the piece from both potential sales, and return it to its rightful place.”
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