2:48am UK, Tuesday December 07, 2010
Susan Philipsz has won the Turner Prize for a recording of a traditional folk song - but it was the sound of protesting students that disrupted her acceptance speech.
According to the Metropolitan Police, around 40 demonstrators staged a sit-in at the Tate Britain gallery over the Government's tuition fees plans.
Their chanting could be heard as sound artist Philipsz was announced winner, but the artist said she "sympathises" with their plight.
She told Sky News: "It's becoming really difficult for people to have an education with all the grants being cut.
"I really do sympathise with them - everyone has the right to an education."
Susan Philipsz said she 'sympathises' with the protesters
After the protest ended peacefully, one student said: "Those artists would not be able to fill up those galleries if they did not have free education and a good investment in arts education."
Phillipsz' winning piece was an empty room filled with the sound of her singing a Scottish lament. It was the first time a sound installation had even been nominated for the award.
Politically-inspired pictures by Dexter Dalwood, paintings subjected to violence by Angela de la Cruz, and a row of television screens showing forgotten works by The Otolith Group were all runners-up.
But the prize is not without its critics , chief among them art critic David Lee.
He told Sky News: "People have got tired of the Turner Prize It's not even as surprising or shocking as it once was - it's now very dull."
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