They could have been spared their blushes if they'd read The Argus.

But council bosses have admitted throwing out a public artwork after wrongly assuming it was a pile of junk.

This newspaper explained the mirror sculpture had been placed on a grass verge in Roedean Road, Brighton, to raise money for charity.

Businessman Paul Lewis, 44, built it as an April Fool's Day prank from offcuts of mirrored glass and had hoped to raise money for the Meningitis Trust by auctioning it.

He was furious at what he thought were "thieves" when it went missing last week and complained to police.

Now Brighton and Hove City Council has admitted it was behind the disappearance.

A spokeswoman said: "Following numerous complaints from the public, the council investigated a strange metal structure on public land at Roedean.

"Council staff and several residents were at a loss to know what it was or why it was there, so taking into account the complaints that it had simply been dumped, we removed and disposed of it."

Mr Lewis, who owns bespoke glass company Silver in St James's Street, Brighton, had received offers of up to £700 for the sculpture after we ran a story asking people what it was when it initially appeared on April 1.

Unfortunately The Argus could not get hold of Mr Lewis yesterday to tell him the bad news.

After reading about the theft in The Argus, sales manager Graham Roberts, 56, of Saltdean, contacted us to say he had witnessed it as he drove to work.

He said: "There were three council vans and about seven to eight workers.

"As I drove I thought to myself why couldn't they leave it alone.

"It was such a nice piece of sculpture and I thought that eventually somebody would smash it up. I saw the council workers and I thought typical Brighton council'."

The council spokeswoman said: "Unfortunately the owner has never come forward to claim the piece, so we were never able to get to the bottom of the mystery.

"As for destroying a 'work of art', this case seems to prove the point that 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder.' "The serious point is that had the owner and creator of the structure contacted the council in the first place, he would have got it back to dispose of in a different way."

A Sussex Police spokeswoman confirmed the case had been officially closed.