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Prominent Turkish artist Canan Tolon says British customs officials destroyed sculptures she had prepared for an exhibition in London, breaking them apart with a sledgehammer after deeming them suspicious.
Tolon, winner of the 25th Vehbi Koc Award, made the claim in a post on her Instagram account.
She said metal armatures used in the works were also seized "as a matter of procedure."
Tolon did not say in the post what made the works appear suspicious.
It was not immediately clear whether British customs authorities had commented on the claim, and details of the inspection, including where and when it took place, were not available.
The incident has drawn attention in Türkiye’s art community, though it was unclear whether the London exhibition would go ahead as planned or what the artist intends to do next.
The Vehbi Koc Award is a prestigious Turkish honor named for the founder of Koc Holding, one of the country’s largest industrial conglomerates.
Tolon, an Istanbul-born painter and installation artist, studied philosophy and literature at the Istanbul French School.
She later studied interior architecture at Middlesex Polytechnic in London from 1975 to 1980, then earned a master’s degree in architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1980 to 1983.
The artist also taught in the university’s architecture and environmental design departments.
She held her first exhibition in the United States in 1984 and has since shown work widely in Türkiye and abroad.
Tolon is known for wall installations and works built around biological objects, with a focus on processes of formation.
She has used both sides of the canvas and incorporated materials such as glass, frames, iron, hair, grass, straw and seeds. In recent years, her work has leaned more heavily on canvas and paper.
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