Coppola, Domingo among Praemium Imperiale winners

[September 17, 2013]  LONDON (AP) --  Moviemaker Francis Ford Coppola and opera singer Placido Domingo are among five winners of a lucrative arts prize that has been dubbed the "Nobel Prize of the arts."

The "Godfather" director and the Spanish tenor are recipients of the Japan Art Association's Praemium Imperiale Awards, which come with a 15 million yen ($150,000) purse.

The awards are open to visual and performing artists -- and architects -- of any nationality. This year's other recipients, announced Tuesday in London, are British sculptor Antony Gormley; British architect David Chipperfield; and Italian painter Michelangelo Pistoletto.

The winners will receive their awards from Japan's Prince Hitachi at a ceremony in Japan in October.

Previous winners of the prize, founded in 1989, include Italian screen star Sophia Loren and British actress Judi Dench.

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.