The Art Book Prize

Lissant Bolton, contributor to the winning book

Last week I attended the annual Art Book Prize, supported by The Art Newspaper and administered by The Authors club, which was awarded to Art in Oceana: A New History by Peter Brunt and Nicholas Thomas at London's National Liberal Club. Contributor Lissant Bolton, the Keeper of the Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas at the British Museum, collected by £1000 prize from the former TV presenter turned cooking sauce entrepreneur and arts patron, Loyd Grossman. 

Selected from a diverse shortlist of seven books on art and architecture, the editors enlisted a huge team of anthropologists, art historians and curators from across the globe to compile the ambitious survey of Oceanic art from the prehistoric period to the present day. Bursting with lavish illustrations of statues, fabrics, weapons and ritual objects, Bolton told me it took the picture researcher an incredible three years to bring together all the images.