Three art collections worth millions of pounds between them have been removed from boardroom walls following company takeovers.

Multinational engineering company TI Group, which had its European headquarters in Abingdon until it was taken over recently by aerospace and medical conglomerate Smiths Industries, has seen its modern art collection removed for storage prior to sale.

The art, collected by former chairman Sir Christopher Lewinton, includes Tracey Emin's neon sign reading Be Faithful to Your Dreams , which once adorned the entrance to the company's Abingdon office, as well as work by Chris Ofili.

Tracey Emin is famous for selling her unmade bed as a work of art and Chris Ofili for using elephant dung as paint.

A spokesman for Smiths Industries said: "We are selling the collection because it doesn't suit our style of working.

"Art collecting was very much a personal project for the former chairman and his wife."

Another collection has been saved from the auctioneer's hammer by the Fleming family which until recently owned Fleming Bank.

Robin Fleming, who lives at Steeple Barton, near Banbury, helped build the collection when he was executive chairman of the bank.

Now the family has set up a charitable trust to safeguard the paintings, following the acquisition of Fleming Bank by Chase Manhattan.

A third collection, built up by the Save and Prosper Group before it was acquired by Flemings, was sold for £600,000 last month.