It's a shame the Council didn't take up the offer to buy it when they could, and even more of a shame that it's languishing in car park unused now with the owner refusing to sell
The price quoted when new was astronomical (£50,000 seems to ring a bell
, a phenomenal amount of money back then - how much a year were YOU earning in those days?
) and the Council wisely turned it down. I believe it was made of fibreglass, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out why it would cost anywhere near 50 grand to make.
The artist must have come to some arrangement with the Council whereby it would be on display (in return for Lord knows what) but I guess he was captive to the situation and didn't have many options. There was clearly a big falling out between the 2 parties, which led to it ending up at the King Kong Car Company, where it eventually got damaged when vandals tried to burn it down.
Having become an eyesore, the Council wanted it gone and resorted to threats to take the Company to court on the (highly dubious) grounds that firms were not allowed to use the word 'King' in their company names!
King Kong Cars gave in and the sorry simian headed north to pastures new.