LONDON: An artist whose work exploring her Scottish Sikh identity includes a vintage Ford car draped in a crocheted doily won the UK’s prestigious Turner Prize on Tuesday, during a ceremony picketed by pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
Jasleen Kaur was awarded the 25,000-pound ($32,000) prize by actor James Norton at the Tate Britain gallery in London.
Kaur used her acceptance speech to express support for scores of demonstrators outside. She is among signatories to a letter demanding Tate, which runs several major British art museums, cut ties with donors who are linked to Israel over its war in Gaza.
“This is not a radical demand,” Kaur said. “This should not risk an artist’s career or safety.
“We need a proper ceasefire now,” she said.
The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas health officials in Gaza. Israel launched the war in response to the militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack that killed some 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostage.
A jury led by Tate Britain director Alex Farquhar praised the way 38-year-old Kaur “weaves together the personal, political and spiritual” through “unexpected and playful combinations of material.”
Her winning exhibition mixes sculpture, print, everyday items — including family photos, a Ford Escort car and the popular Scottish soda Irn Bru — and immersive music to reflect on her upbringing in Glasgow’s Sikh community.
Three other finalists – Pio Abad, Claudette Johnson and Delaine Le Bas – received 10,000 pounds ($12,670) each.
Named for 19th-century landscape painter J.M.W. Turner and founded in 1984 to reward young artists, the prize helped make stars of shark-pickling artist Damien Hirst, potter Grayson Perry, sculptor Anish Kapoor and filmmaker Steve McQueen.
But it has also been criticized for rewarding impenetrable conceptual work and often sparks debate about the value of modern art, with winners such as Hirst’s “Mother and Child Divided,” which consists of two cows, bisected and preserved in formaldehyde, and Martin Creed’s “Lights On and Off” — a room with a light blinking on and off – drawing scorn from sections of the media.
In 2019, all four finalists were declared winners after they refused to compete against one another, “to make a collective statement in the name of commonality, multiplicity and solidarity.”
In 2021, all five finalists were collectives rather than individual artists.
The award was initially open to artists under 50 but now has no upper age limit.
Works by the four finalists are on display until Feb. 16.

LONDON: UK officials hinted Tuesday that a deal was in the works with Greece to end a decades-long dispute over the highly contested and priceless Parthenon Marbles.
The British Museum said it was holding “constructive” talks with Athens over “sharing” the ancient sculptures, raising the likelihood that the friezes will be loaned back to Greece.
The comments came as Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis, amid media reports that he is open to seeing the masterpieces return to their country of origin.
A spokesman for Starmer later indicated that the UK government would not stand in the way of any agreement between Greece and the British Museum to end the centuries-old saga.
“Discussions with Greece about a Parthenon partnership are on-going and constructive,” said a British Museum spokesperson.
“We believe that this kind of long-term partnership would strike the right balance between sharing our greatest objects with audiences around the world, and maintaining the integrity of the incredible collection we hold at the museum.”
The Parthenon Marbles, also called the Elgin Marbles, have been a source of contention between Britain and Greece for over two centuries.
Greek authorities maintain that the sculptures were looted in 1802 by Lord Elgin, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.
But London claims that the sculptures were “legally acquired” by Elgin, and then sold to the British Museum.
The Marbles overshadowed Mitsotakis’ last official visit to Britain, when Starmer’s predecessor Rishi Sunak canceled a meeting at the last minute after the Greek leader’s public comments on the contentious issue reportedly irked the UK side.
Starmer and Mitsotakis’s talks Tuesday focused on illegal migration and supporting Ukraine but Downing Street refused to deny that the Marbles were also discussed.
“Understandably, the Greek prime minister will have raised many issues,” Starmer’s spokesman said, adding that the Marbles’ future is “entirely” in the hands of the British Museum.
Sky News reported Monday that Mitsotakis and his foreign minister had held at least two “private meetings” with museum officials, including chairman George Osborne, this year.
The Guardian newspaper said the talks were moving toward “an agreement in principle.”
A 1963 UK law prevents the British museum from giving away treasures, but it has about 1,400 objects on long-term loan at other museums every year, meaning a similar agreement for the Marbles is likely.
“We have no plans to change the law that would permit a permanent move” of the sculptures back to Greece, added Starmer’s spokesman.

Ahead of the meeting, Mitsotakis said he was “firmly convinced” the sculptures will return to Athens.
“Discussions with the British Museum are continuing,” he told ANT1 TV on Saturday.
Sunak axing the meeting a year ago was seen as a diplomatic slap in the face to Mitsotakis, and the latest example of the dispute poisoning bilateral relations.
The Greek leader, an ardent campaigner for the Marbles’ return, had told the BBC at the time that keeping part of the Parthenon friezes outside Greece was tantamount to “cut(ting) the Mona Lisa in half.”
Starmer, then head of the opposition, later told the House of Commons that Sunak had “obviously lost his marbles” in canceling the meeting.
Athens’s campaign for the return of the 75-meter (250 feet) long friezes was revived in the 1980s by Greek singer and actress Melina Mercouri when she was culture minister.
In the UK, where according to a YouGov poll in 2023 a majority of Britons back restitution, opponents fear a domino effect, amid claims from several countries.
A UNESCO World Heritage site, the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens is a temple built in the fifth century BC in homage to the goddess Athena.
The new Acropolis Museum, inaugurated in 2009, has reserved a space for the Parthenon friezes on the first floor of the building, where the four sides of the temple have been faithfully recreated to scale.
The missing friezes have been replaced by casts.
Founded in 1753, the British Museum collection of eight million objects also includes the Rosetta Stone.