An early Banksy painting titled "Gorilla in a Pink Mask" was whitewashed by the building's new owners because the thought it was graffiti.
The whitewashing of the work (pictured right) happened a little over a week ago and resulted in a huge public outcry which was covered in the international news.
Saeed Ahmed, head of the cultural center, said: "I thought it was worthless. I didn't know it was valuable and that's why I painted over it. I really am sorry if people are upset."
Mr Ahmed, who apologised for whitewashing the Bristol mural, said the work is important to many different people in the Bristol area and the Muslim Cultural center never would have removed if they had been told. It is now important to put together a registry of street art and list anything of value before they disappear forever.
The Center pledged to explore options to see if the whitewash can be removed and the painting restored.
The Muslim community has managed so far to partially restore the work (pictured to the right). The stenciled artwork seems to all be there but it has faded quite a bit.
The mural, one of Banksy's earliest works, is illustrated in a number of books on the international artist.
The piece was painted on the wall of a building that used to be the North Bristol Social Club, in Eastville section of Bristol. It had been a landmark in the area for more than 10 years.
Richard Pelter, director of the International Fine Art Conservation Studios, was called in to estimate the damage, and said the mural could be recovered but it would be painstaking and costly work.
He told the Bristol Evening Post: "It's quite a notable piece and something can be done I imagine but it would take quite a long time to get it sorted out properly."
"Given the right sort of conditions, I think you would probably be able to establish something. What I found was that the paint there was quite soluble underneath, but no one could actually tell me where it was on the wall. I was seeing if the upper layers of paint can be removed which they can, very carefully. It would take quite a long time and cost quite a bit of money to do it, probably hundreds going into the thousands, because of the complexity of it."
Last May, another work by Banksy was lost when an artwork painted on the side of a hotel was destroyed by vandals. Staff at the Grosvenor Hotel in Torquay, Devon were outraged to discover the image of a young boy drawing a robot valued at £150,000 - had been damaged.
Vandals broke through protective perspex glass protecting the painting - which appeared last October - and doused the wall with paint stripper, obliterating' the small boy.
A new organization on Facebook has appeared in the last few months to monotor and protect valuable street art.
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