An artist who spent two years creating a life-sized ostrich sculpture had to knock down the wall of his studio to get the bird out.

Nick Johnson created the towering sculpture from recycled floor boards.

But after using thousands of pieces of wood to complete the piece, Mr Johnson discovered it would not fit through the door of his Viper's Wharf studio in Railway Lane, Lewes.

Passers by stopped to watch yesterday as the artist knocked down his studio wall to remove the sculpture, which was transported in a large metal cage to protect it on its journey to the Browse and Darby Gallery in London where it will be shown for a couple of weeks, before being shipped to a collector in America.

Mr Johnson said: “We had to take the front of the studio out and part of the garden gate.

“I realised as I was making it because it is very large, about seven-and-a-half foot high and four to five foot wide.

“It is made of thousands of pieces so it was quicker to take the wall out than to pull the ostrich apart.”

It took six men to move the giant bird from the studio and it was then lifted on a hydraulic platform into a removal van but not before Mr Johnson had unscrewed its head in order to make sure the sculpture fit.

As part of his research to make the piece Mr Johnson visited Kenya and zoos like Marwell and Longleat to study ostriches.

He also looked at books, photographs and films about the birds.

He said: “I am quite pleased with the sculpture, it came out well. It has been very hard so I am pleased to see the end of it but I am sorry to see it go.

“I can’t quite believe I finished it. I felt very sad last night when I turned the light out for the last time.”

Mr Johnson said he was unable to reveal how much the ostrich was worth, but admitted it was costly.

The ostrich is not the first life-size sculpture Mr Johnson has made. His other works include a bull, a cheetah and a camel.

And he already has new plans in the pipeline to make a wild boar, a leopard and some vultures in the future.