At a gala dinner held at Bonham's auction rooms in London on 15 March, Howard Bilton, Founder and Chairman of the Sovereign Art Foundation, revealed that the winner of the 2007 European Art Prize was Damien Cadio's painting ‘Esercito'. The public vote prize was won by the English Artist Wendy Elia for her painting ‘Nick'. Damien thus became the first Frenchman in over twenty years to win a major international art prize. The opposition was intense as the Chairman of Judges, Sir Peter Blake points out "Choosing from the high standard of finalists was an almost impossible task. But we are delighted to have been able to make this award to an artist who is at such an exciting point in his career."
Once the business with prizes had been done the remaining 33 shortlisted paintings were auctioned to raise funds for the Sovereign Art Foundation who will this year spend some of the money raised on the development of a residencies scheme for mid career artists.
The 2008 Prize will be launched in the summer in eiher Berlin , Paris or Lisbon.