Azerbaijani artist Margarita Karimova-Sokolova has been awarded the Leonardo da Vinci Art Prize (Special Edition Gold).

The award ceremony took place at the Leonardo da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan, Italy, Azernews reports.

The museum is one of the largest in Europe. Here is the largest collection of car models made from drawings by Leonardo da Vinci.

Margarita Karimova-Sokolova represented Azerbaijan, and her painting "Feeling and Reason" was included in the international catalogue of the award organisers.

Margarita Karimova-Sokolova was born in Baku. Her great-grandfather was a famous Russian artist, Ivan Ivanovich Sokolov. She studied at the art and graphic faculty of Kuban University and the Academy of Arts named after Repin (St. Petersburg).

She is a member of the Azerbaijan Union of Artists and the USSR (since 1969). She is also a member of the UNESCO International Federation of Artists, a member of the International Art Fund of the Russian Academy of Arts, a vice president of the International Foundation for Aesthetic Development, and a member of the International Association of Artists.

Since 1965, Margarita has participated in exhibitions of Soviet and Azerbaijani artists in various cities of the USSR, Algeria, Germany, the U.S., France, Cuba, Austria, Poland, and Bulgaria.

In 1994–1995, she lived and worked in the U.S. (Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago). Since 1995, she has been living in the city of Cologne (Germany). Her exhibitions are held with great success in many countries.

Margarita Karimova-Sokolova is a prize-winner of the International Art Prize Caravaggio—Great Master of Art (2022), the International Prize Leonardo Da Vinci (2022), the Olympic Artistic Award (2021), and the Artistic Career Prize (2023).