A panel of art experts trooped through a musty London warehouse last week, handing down their judgments with clipped finality: "No. No. Terrible. No. Yes." Propped against packing cases for their decision were 274 survivors of the 3,500 models entered in the biggest sculpture contest ever held. The stakes: $32,000 in prizes, offered by an anonymous donor for a monument honoring The Unknown Political Prisoner (TIME, Feb. 9). When the experts were finished, the $12,670 grand prize went to Britain's Reg Butler, 39, a shaggy-haired architect turned sculptor who made his first real splash at last summer's Venice Biennale.
For his Unknown...