An artist is desperately trying to find out what has happened to her 4ft-high painting of Harry Potter after it went missing in the post.

Hannah Weston, of Norwich, said it took her several days over two months to complete the painting of the boy wizard.

The 26-year-old, who works as a tattoo artist in the city, had originally planned to keep the painting but decided to sell it to a buyer in Orpington.

However the stunning painting, which is worth £700, never made it from her house to the Parcelforce depot in Norwich.

Ms Weston said it is 'incredibly disheartening' knowing that something she put 'so much time, energy and passion into' can go missing.

Parcelforce has offered Ms Weston £125 in compensation.

In a statement, a Parcelforce spokeswoman said: 'We would like to apologise wholeheartedly to Ms Weston that she has not received the service she expected and deserved from Parcelforce Worldwide on this occasion as we have been unable to locate the item.

'Every item we handle is important to us and we always strive to provide the best possible service to all of our customers. We are contacting the customer direct to make a gesture of goodwill, to compensate for the loss of this item and distress caused.'