Brasília, June 9, 2004 (Agência Brasil) - The architect Oscar Niemeyer is one of the winners of the Imperial Prize, a sort of Japanese Nobel cultural award. The prize was created in 1989 and is awarded each year to cultural figures that enrich the international community.

Niemeyer, who is responsible for the architecture of Brasília and is now 96 years old, should receive around US$ 135 thousand, nearly R$ 420 thousand, in prize money. He has already informed that he will not attend the ceremony in Tokyo in October, because he dislikes airplanes. As for the money he will receive from the Japanese Association for Art, sponsor of the prize, he said he doesn't have any plans but that it is a special honor to receive a prize from Japan, which possesses such a rich architecture.

This is not the architect's first major award. He received the Pritzker prize, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in architecture, in 1987/88, and the Golden Lion, from Venice, in 1996.

Translator: David Silberstein