Artist Rebecca Warren hot favourite for Turner prize

LONDON, Dec 5 (Reuters) Artist Rebecca Warren is hot favourite to land the prestigious Turner prize, with a neon-lit box of fluff.

''Rebecca Warren has consistently been favourite and she ended up odds-on at 10-11. But there was some late money for (German-born artist) Tomma Abts,'' said a spokesman for bookmakers William Hill yesterday.

Third favourite at 7-2 is Phil Collins who set up an exhibit featuring a real-life office full of researchers wanting to interview people forever scarred by their ''15 minutes of TV fame.'' Outsider in the shortlisted quartet at odds of 5-1 was Mark Titchner who uses everything from t-shirts to light boxes, adorning them with song lyrics and advertising slogans.

Every year the Turner prize enrages aficionados who complain that nothing succeeds like excess with trendy headline-grabbing works preferred to ''real'' art.

But the Turner always manages to attract up to 100,000 visitors a year to the Tate Britain museum to answer for themselves the perennial question ''Is It Art?'' REUTERS SHB BD0925