MOSCOW—Russian sculptor Anatoly Osmolovsky was presented with Russia's first Kandinsky Prize for contemporary art yesterday for T-72, a bronze work inspired by a Soviet tank turret, Bloomberg reports.

Osmolovsky, 38, was named Best Artist of the Year and won 40,000 euros ($58,889) at a ceremony in Moscow's Winzavod Center of Contemporary Art. Other prizes went to Vladlena Gromova, for Best Young Artist of the Year, and Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe, for Best Art Media Project of the Year.

According to the organizers, the award "hopes to develop Russian contemporary art, and to seek out new and interesting projects and artists." Russian newspapers billed it as the country's equivalent to the Turner Prize.

When the ceremony commenced yesterday, two threatening police officers stormed onto the stage, kissing passionately to an applauding audience in support of Blue Noses's Era of Mercy (2005). Russia's Culture Ministry banned the picture of two Russian policemen kissing from an exhibition of Russian contemporary art in Paris at the end of October. The Blue Noses, Sasha Shaburov and Slava Mizin, then came on stage to host the ceremony.