Artist transforms old Fiat into pile of cash

He won last year's Turner Prize for a ramshackle shed which he turned into a boat - only to turn it back into a shed again.

Then Scottish artist Simon Starling tried the same trick on a motor car, driving a battered Fiat 126 from Italy to Poland and changing it into a symbol of Polish national identity,

Now his record of that transformation, entitled Flaga, has been acquired by Tate for a five-figure sum at the Frieze Art Fair in Regent's Park.

Starling drove the red Fiat from Turin, where it was built in 1974, 802 miles to Cieszyn in Poland. He substituted the boot, doors and bonnet for parts made in the Fiat factory in Poland, and changed its colour to the red and white of the Polish flag.

Starling said the work was "emblematic of the shared industrial and political histories of Italy and Poland".

At Frieze, Tate bought five prints depicting the transformation from the Modern Institute in Glasgow. They will remain on display at the art fair until it ends on Sunday.

Every year Tate sends curators - this time armed with £150,000 - to Frieze to select work for its galleries. The budget is organised by the Outset Contemporary Fund, which supports modern art purchases.

Other Tate acquisitions include the sculpture Chandelier Avec Têtes by Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn. It consists of painted plastic-hands encased in bubble paper and brown tape.

Other highlights at this year's Frieze include a reenactment by The Wrong Gallery of one of the most controversial art installations ever. The Second Solution Of Immortality: The Universe Is Immobile, shows a man with Down's Syndrome sitting on a chair looking at a stone, a sphere and a cube.

Such was the controversy when it was shown at the 1972 Venice Biennale, the man was replaced by a "normal" girl. This time the role is played by a disabled male actor.