Well – he could afford to, after winning the Turner Prize yesterday. A self-styled conceptual artist, his ‘works’ range from the mundane, through the trite, to the frankly unbelievably silly.

According to the BBC, one of Wallinger’s recent exploits was to “spend 10 nights alone in a Berlin gallery dressed as a bear to make the resulting film, Sleeper”. All I can say is, it’s a pity he didn’t go to Khartoum and do it.

His biggest installation to date is an accurate copy of the banners, posters and paraphernalia of political protester Brian Haw's demonstration in Parliament Square. It beggars belief that someone would actually waste time and money reconstructing, in minute detail, a replica of this on the very slim premise of acute commentary. But I guess the lovely money makes it all seem worthwhile.

You really couldn’t make this pretentious stuff up!