His work now sells for a fortune. Which is lucky because it costs a fortune to make. I ask how much the piece in New York cost, and he comes over all coy.
"More than £10,000?" I hazard a guess.
"I'd say!"
"Surely not more than 100 grand?"
"I'd say!"
"More than 200 grand?"
"Actually, that's the last figure I'm going to go to. Much more than £200,000! Hahahahaha!" And the laughter echoes round the studio. "You can imagine to make something of that scale, 10m round, that's as big as a house, that's a big thing of polished stainless steel, it's incredibly difficult to do, first of all, and a very expensive thing to do."
What will they do with it in the end? "We'll sell it, I hope." At a profit? "Of course, millions and trillions! Hahahaha! From the outside, money makes no sense in the art world, but the truth of the matter is there's a logic to it. It's like any other commodity."
What's the most he's sold a piece for?
"I'm not going to tell you!"
I tell him I've read that one piece sold for £1m. "I would say there are some that have sold for much more than that. Talk to the Lisson Gallery and they will tell you. Hahahahaha!"
"Typically, a work of Anish's will go for somewhere between £75,000 for a small-edition piece to £700,000-£1m for a major work," says Nicholas Logsdail, the Lisson's owner. Logsdail met Kapoor at his graduation exhibition 25 years ago and they began working together soon after. "I walked into this room with pigment works on the floor and thought they were so powerful. Anish was in his mid-20s and was a shy, rather boyish-looking man."
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