Maggi Hambling is not impressed. Yet again, one of her public art works has been vandalised: the cigarette welded to the long fingers of her sculpture of Oscar Wilde in Covent Garden has been stolen. “It has been removed for about the fourth time. No joke!” she tells me as soon as I join her for lunch.

“I’m refusing to replace it until Westminster Council puts a CCTV camera there. The last cigarette was made of steel and must have taken two nights to saw through. This one was made from hardened stainless steel by the people who made my sculpture in Aldeburgh – it must have taken several nights!” Could it be an anti-smoking gesture? “Or anti-queer,” she retorts.