Madonna to present Turner prize

LONDON, UK (AP) - Pop diva Madonna is to present this year's Turner art prize at London's Tate Britain gallery on 9 December. A Tate Britain spokesman told BBC News Online that the gallery had approached the star about doing the honours at the event, and that she had now accepted.

The singer, who is known for her love of art, will no doubt enjoy the controversy the prize often attracts, being no stranger to the limelight herself.

Madonna is expected to make a statement about presenting the prize at a later date. This will not be her first contact with the Tate - she has previously attended a special rededication ceremony for Tate Britain in March 2000 after the opening of its sister gallery Tate Modern.
After the ceremony she spent about an hour at the gallery with her husband Guy Richie.

In April of this year the singer, 43, also agreed to lend a work to the Tate Modern. She loaned the gallery Self-Portrait with Monkey, by the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, for the surrealist exhibition Surrealism: Desire Unbound, which is running until 1 January 2002.
The painting, which depicts Kahlo with a monkey round her neck, had not been seen by the public for a decade. The decision to loan the picture only came after several weeks of negotiation.
Jennifer Mundy, curator of the Tate Modern exhibition, said: "Clearly something about this show persuaded Madonna to lend."

Controversy

The Turner Prize was established in 1984 and offers a prize of �20,000 to a "British artist under 50 for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work". The shortlist for the prize is often seen to have favoured avant-garde, outlandish and daring work - and usually produces controversy.

This year's shortlist - of Richard Billingham, Martin Creed, Isaac Julien and Mike Nelson - was criticised for including no women artists.