Richard Wright's Turner winner erased

Any thought that Richard Wright's Turner-prize-winning fresco – an exquisite abstract work in gold leaf – ought to be saved for posterity can be abandoned: Tate Britain's art handlers sanded and painted over the work at the end of last week, following the closure of the Turner prize exhibition. Wright didn't see it go: the Glasgow-based artist tends not to linger at the grave of his works. This is what the artist wanted. Wright's pieces are intended to be ­temporary, to exist in the memory ­after their destruction. Visitor figures to the show this year were 77,000, a ­little down on last year's 92,000.