PERRON Group intends moving an artwork in Perth’s Central Park building despite protest.

High-profile figure Janet Holmes a Court yesterday led a protest against the Stan Perron-owned company’s plans to relocate a $5 million Brian McKay work in the Central Park foyer.

More than 50 protesters voiced their opposition to the plan to shift the near tennis court-sized artwork about 4m to make room for a new coffee shop.

The businesswoman and Art Gallery of WA chairwoman said the protest was a bid to be heard after months of failed negotiations with the building’s owners.

“We have been talking to them for about six months and making absolutely no headway and the more people who find out about this, the more people are upset and disturbed,” Mrs Holmes a Court said.

Singapore-based Frasers Commercial Properties and Perron Group own the Central Park building. McKay’s work — etched and painted on aluminium — was commissioned in the 1990s.

Mrs Holmes a Court said the work was McKay’s masterpiece.

A Perron Group spokesman said the artwork could be moved without damaging it but those against the plan say they have been advised to the contrary.

“Engineering, construction and artwork experts have been consulted to ensure every measure possible is employed to enable the artworks to be relocated without any damage,” the spokesman said.

Consultants working on the project have advised Perron Group that “with the appropriate level of care and precision, the artworks can be safely removed and relocated with no disturbance to their structural or visual integrity”, the spokesman said.

The protesters said Japan-based Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, which built the panels the murals are etched on, advised that the panels could not be removed without damage to the artwork.

Mrs Holmes a Court said that even if the panels could be safely removed, moving the art would “destroy the integrity of Brian’s work”.

“It was designed by Brian and the original architects for the specific position it is in...they (the panels) need to be exactly where they are,” she said.

Perron Group plans to start the development next year.