A piece of Banksy artwork in Dover could be worth as much as £20 million - despite being painted over, according to a leading expert.

The image of a workman chipping away a star on the EU flag appeared on the side of a building in the town in 2017 but it disappeared in August.

KMTV spoke to John Brandler about the piece

Last month, the anonymous artist broke his silence about the work saying he'd always intended on adapting the picture before Brexit, but now won't bother.

Expert John Brandler from Brandler Galleries in Brentwood - says it's still incredibly important.

After initially valuating it at £1million, he now suspects it could bring in far more.

He said: "It's one of his five or six seminal pieces. It's comparable to the pieces in Port Talbot and the monkey parliament which has sold for £10million. The piece in London has raised the profile and price of all the other pieces. People are asking in excess of £12million so this piece is easily between £10 and £20m.

"One of the problems is it will cost a lot to clean it but I understand from the best wall cleaners that they've already been approached on what it would be cost to do."

"This is a piece Dover would have a financial interest."

"Partly to regenerate the area like Margate who has 130 small independent stores opened due to the Turner Contemporary Gallery

"You could do the same thing in Dover. It might be that the council has a financial interest.

"Then you've got something that will draw up to 300,000 people year in to your town. Not just through it.

"That's why Margate has got 130 independent stores because people are going there, looking at the art and spending money in the town."

"People are asking in excess of £12million so this piece is easily between £10 and £20m..."

Mr Brandler says the piece is definitely still there but has been hidden possibly to protect it.

He added: "It's definitely still there. It's just been covered over. If you've got a book and you close it the writing doesn't disappear. You can't see it but the writing doesn't disappear.

"It's one of his five or six seminal pieces. It's comparable to the pieces in Port Talbot and the monkey parliament which has sold for £10million.

"The piece in London has raised the profile and price of all the other pieces. People are asking in excess of £12million so this piece is easily between £10 and £20m.

"One of the problems is it will cost a lot to clean it but I understand from the best wall cleaners that they've already been approached on what it would be cost to do."

You can see a report on this story on Kent Tonight on KMTV from 5.30pm.

Read more: All the latest news from Dover