Ant and Dec take legal action over 'secret profits' in Banksy deals

Ant and Dec have asked a High Court judge to help them obtain information about deals in which they bought and sold Banksy artworks, after claiming an intermediary took "secret and unauthorised profits".

The TV hosts say they paid £550,000 for one set of Banksy works but the seller apparently only received £300,000, and they want to know what happened to the other £250,000.

They also have "similar concerns" about being deprived of "a substantial sum" from selling 22 items, the court was told on Tuesday.

The pair have asked a judge to issue a court order to force an art dealer to hand over his information about the transactions and the operations of a separate art consultant who acted on the stars' behalf.

Ant and Dec enlisted the consultant, who has not been named and was referred to as X in court, to help them buy, sell and loan the artworks as they built up a contemporary art collection.

They now want to "uncover what really happened in relation to these transactions" and where any missing money went, Harry Martin, for Ant and Dec, told Tuesday's hearing.

He said the consultant brokered deals including the £550,000 purchase of a set of six prints in which Banksy depicted model Kate Moss as actress Marilyn Monroe in the style of Andy Warhol.

Martin also gave an example of a work the pair sold - a version of Banksy's Napalm, which shows the girl - nine-year-old Kim Phuc - from a famous 1972 photo of people fleeing a napalm attack during the Vietnam War, made to look like she's holding hands with Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald.

Martin said X sold it for £13,000 but told the presenters they had received £11,000, leaving "a discrepancy of £2,000".

The pair are seeking the disclosure order to obtain relevant information from art dealer Andrew Lilley and his firm Lilley Fine Art Ltd, which were involved in buying works from Ant and Dec and selling works to them, the court heard.

Lilley and his dealership are not accused of wrongdoing but were "mixed up in the wrongdoing" and were "involved in the flow of money", Martin told the court.

Lilley has so far refused to give information about the transactions, citing confidentiality, but said he would comply with any court order, the court heard.

Lilley told BBC News he had been "caught up in this mess and it really has nothing to do with me".

"I was just purchasing art on what I thought was fair and market value, no idea what was going on in the background," he said. "

This is a matter for the courts now and between A&D [Ant and Dec] and the third party [X]."

Judge Iain Pester said he would rule on Wednesday on whether to order the disclosure and lift an interim anonymity order covering X's identity.