A £350,000 bill for removal firm that put Kapoor work in skip

Described by one expert as "sensuous and sexy", to many in the art world, the sculpture known as Hole and Vessel 11 was an important early work of the Turner Prize-winning artist Anish Kapoor.

However, at the art storage company to which it was entrusted an employee took a different view and, it is believed, chucked the sculpture into a skip during a clear-out, presumably thinking it was just rubbish. Well, it was made from polystyrene, cement, earth, acrylic and pigment, although the bright red colour might have been a clue that it was a work of art.

That unfortunate decision yesterday cost the company, Fine Art Logistics, £350,000 plus costs after a High Court judge decided they were liable for the full value of the work, bought by the Swiss-based art collector, Ofir Scheps, as a wedding present.

The judgment represents an embarrassing defeat for the storage company, which had argued in court that its liability was limited because such works would normally be independently insured.

The High Court heard that the work was created in 1984 by Kapoor, who won the Turner Prize in 1991.

Giving judgment, Mr Justice Teare said: "It is not possible for me to describe it," adding: "One expert described it as sensuous and sexy, the other as clumsy and somewhat absurd."

There was, however, said the judge, agreement that it was made during Kapoor's transitional phase when he was "moving away from an exploration of the male/female dichotomy towards an exploration of the void".

Mr Scheps bought the piece in an auction at Christies for around £20,000- considerably less than its real value - in June 2004 as a present for his wife and arranged for Fine Art Logistics in south London, to store it, pending its removal to Kapoor's studio for restoration work.

When the time came for the work to be moved, in September 2004, it could not be found. The judge said: "It is the considered opinion of the general manager of Fine Arts Logistics that Hole and Vessel II was, placed in a skip and destroyed at a waste transfer station."

He said it was thought to have occurred during clearance for building work.

Mr Scheps originally sued for £600,000, which he claimed was the current value following a rise in the price of Kapoor's works. The company claimed that its liability was limited to only £587 under its standard terms and conditions.

The judge ruled that Mr Scheps was able to recover the £132,000 value of the sculpture as at September 2004, taking into account the renovation needed, plus a further £219,375 to reflect the "substantial'' rise in value of the sculpture.

The judge said it was reasonable for such a company to limit its liability to a fixed sum, but the company had taken no steps to bring the limit to Mr Scheps's attention and there was no evidence that it offered to arrange insurance.

Kapoor, 52, has spoken of his "deep regret" over the sculpture's disappearance. "I only made seven or eight works that year and it's a shame to lose one of them," he said.