A mosaic designed by John Lennon has been recovered, having gone missing after being removed from the musician’s swimming pool.

The John Lennon Psychedelic Eye, designed and installed in 1967, featured at the deep end wall of the outdoor swimming pool at Kenwood in St George's Hill, Weybridge, where Lennon lived from 1964 to 1969.

In 1985 the owners of Kenwood, a Swedish entrepreneur and his wife, and joint owner of the mosaic, Bernard Cochrane, agreed to preserve the work of art.

The 17,000 tiles were painstakingly removed to prevent deterioration and allow it to be displayed for all to enjoy.

The Psychedelic Eye was featured at the Festival Gardens site in Liverpool until it closed in 1987, after which it was loaned to a children’s hospital on the instruction it would later be returned to the owners.

In 2005 the owners discovered the mosaic had never made it to the hospital and quickly found the person who had it. They spent six years trying to recover it from the man, who was claiming ownership of the mosaic.

Mr Cochrane said: “We don’t know why it didn’t make it, we probably won’t ever know.”

Having found the mosaic, and after a lengthy police investigation decided it was a civil matter, an agreement was made outside of court to reunite the owner with the mosaic, which was undamaged but cut into 24 sections.

The Psychedelic Eye is now hidden in a secret location in Oxfordshire, where it is to be reframed and restored before going back on public display.

Mr Cochrane said: “We would love it to go to the Tate Modern or something like that but just now we are concentrating on getting it back to its former glory.”