Japan Awards Honor Fellini and Bernstein : Arts: Three others also win $100,000 each at Praemium Imperiale ceremony.

American conductor Leonard Bernstein and Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini were among five leading contributors to the arts who won $100,000 each today in the Japanese-funded Praemium Imperiale awards.

Other victors announced at Claridge’s Hotel were Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro, Spanish painter Antoni Tapies and Scottish architect James Stirling.

The Praemium Imperiale awards began last year and offer the winners $100,000 awards contributed by leading Japanese corporations.

Winners are leading contributors in the five categories of painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and theater or film. Selections are made by the Japan Art Assn., and the awards are patronized by Prince Hitachi, the younger brother of Japan’s Emperor Akihito.

Last year’s awards ceremony in Tokyo was attended by former President Ronald Reagan.

However, the prize did not receive much recognition, so organizers for this year’s event made the announcement in London and invited four former European prime ministers--Edward Heath of England, Jacques Chirac of France, Helmut Schmidt of West Germany and Amintore Fanfani of Italy--to give greater gravitas to the prize.

Backers include Sony Corp., but all have eschewed any self-promotion or public links to the award.

“We Japanese have received much of the cultural impact and benefits from all over the world, so we Japanese like to express our appreciation and thanks to the world,” said Japan Art Assn. Chairman Hiroaki Shikanai.

Japanese are excluded from winning the prize for its first three years.