A TABLE donated by a Basingstoke restaurant has been transformed by a group of artists and auctioned off to raise money for a local good cause.

Ask Italian, in Festival Place, gave away a table to a group of artists from All Our Own Work, who have a pop-up gallery in the shopping centre.

The group then set about transforming the table into a work of art, using an Italian theme. They split the table top into eight sections, to look like a pizza, and painted one each.

The finished product was then sold at auction in Festival Place, to raise money for the Ark Cancer Centre Charity.

Festival Place has pledged to raise £10,000 for the charity, which needs to generate £5million to help build a state-of-the-art £13m cancer centre in north Hampshire, which will offer radiotherapy, chemotherapy and more.

Hugo Lindsay bid the highest price at the auction, securing the table for £180.

The 44-year-old, from Tunworth, who is an entrepreneur and lawyer, said: “A friend and I were walking through Festival Place and Ask were giving out some canapés. They gave us a drink, we sat down and the auction started.

“They then brought out this table and it was amazing. These guys have done an amazing job. I’m going to pay them to varnish it and use it outside for barbecues.”

Mr Lindsay, who is chief executive officer of luxury swimwear company Madame Monte Carlo, asked the artists to create a special secret panel on the table, which will be revealed in October when his first baby is born.

Kev Munday, one of the seven artists who helped to design the table, said: “We decided to split it with a pizza theme and based it around Italy and the summer garden. We each did a different section.”

The 28-year-old, from Chineham, added: “It’s excellent to raise so much money. It took us an hour-and-a-half to two hours each, so it was quite a lot of work.”