Sophie Calle and Maria João Pires among winners of 2024 Praemium Imperiale awards

Two of Europe's most celebrated artists have been recognised at the 35th annual celebration of the arts, the Praemium Imperiale awards.

French conceptual artist Sophie Calle and Portuguese classical pianist Maria João Pires are among the five artists across various disciplines selected as the winners of the 2024 prizes.

Calle won in Painting, while João Pires was celebrated in the Music category. Joining them are Columbian visual artist Doris Salcedo in Sculpture; Taiwanese director Ang Lee in Theatre/Film; and Japanese architect Shigeru ban in Architecture.

The Praemium Imperiale is an international art prize awarded by Japan’s Imperial family on behalf of the Japan Art Association. It was started by Hirohito, Emperor Shōwa, who reigned from 1926 to his death in 1989 and created the awards in honour of his younger brother Prince Takamatsu who died in 1987.

The annual awards are presented by Prince Hitachi, the President of the Japan Art Association in a ceremony at Meiji Kinenkan in Tokyo.

Previous winners of the prize include Yayoi Kusama, Anish Kapoor, Norman Foster, Philip Glass, and Jean-Luc Godard, among many other high-profile names.

Each of this year's laureates is awarded a gold medal and cash prize worth 15 million Japanese Yen (€96,000). An additional 5 million Yen (€32,000) has been awarded as part of a Grant for Young Artists, which went to the Komunitas Salihara Arts Center in Jakarta.

Founded in 1995, the Komunitas Salihara Arts Center is Indonesia’s first private cultural complex dedicated to promoting communal expression through a wide variety of artistic mediums.

Sophie Calle, the 70-year-old conceptual artist has previously represented France at the 2007 Venice Biennale and was awarded the Commandeur de