King Charles mural is defaced within hours of it appearing

A mural to mark the coronation of King Charles III was defaced within hours of it being unveiled.

The artwork by renowned Welsh street artist Tee2Sugars was created ahead of the coronation of the monarch on Saturday.

However, less than 24 hours after it appeared in Merthyr it had been marked with explicit graffiti.

“I created the piece in light of the recent coronation,” said Tee. “I’m not a royalist but the celebration of a new King or Queen in the UK is the first for so many years.

“The piece was created Wednesday night and defaced Thursday afternoon,” he added.” The whole thing took two hours to create.

“The piece was finally taken down by the council Friday morning, due to some miscommunication as the piece was due to be fixed Friday afternoon.”

Despite his creation being blighted and then ultimately removed the leading street artist remained philosophical.

“Street art is often at the forefront for discussion as it’s public and open to being defaced or vandalised – and the monarchy has always been a sensitive subject in the UK,” he said.

“It’s always interesting to me, to see the different perspectives of others, and the dialogues art creates.”

The defacing of the King Charles mural comes as a specially decorated coronation post box in Cardiff has continually been plastered with various Welsh independence stickers over the last few days.

Originally stickers were applied to the postbox within hours of it being unveiled outside the Owain Glyndŵr pub in Cardiff last Wednesday.

The Royal Mail post box in Cardiff city centre was one of four across the UK to be repainted in celebration of the King’s crowning.

Members of the public criticised the decision to place the post box decorated with a Union Jack flag and the coronation’s official emblem nearby a pub named after a Welsh hero who led a fifteen year revolt to end English rule in Wales.

During his fight for Welsh independence, Owain Glyndŵr seized a number of walled towns and castles built by the English and was the last man, born and raised in Wales, to have the title of Prince of Wales.

While some commentators on social media appeared to predict and support the vandalism of the box, others, including Welsh Conservative councillor for Radyr and Morgantown Calum Davies, reported it to Royal Mail and Cardiff Council and by mid-morning on Thursday the stickers had been ripped off, but their outline remained visible.

However, this only increased the number of stickers being added and by the time of the coronation on Saturday morning, the postbox had been covered by even more stickers.

Cardiff was one of the centres of coronation celebrations across the UK on the weekend, with a public screening of the ceremony being held in Cardiff Castle and a screening of the coronation concert taking place at Roald Dahl Plass.

A “Not My King” protest also took place on the city’s streets, with protesters gathering by the statue of Aneurin Bevan on Queen Street ahead of the march.

It was followed by a “Big Republican Lunch” in Bute Park – a play on the name of the Big Coronation Lunches that communities have been encouraged to hold to mark the occasion.