This year's award went to Stephanie Bernard, who conducted research on the 17th-century painting "The Apparition of the Virgin of the Rosary to Saint Bruno" by the Spanish painter Juan Sánchez Cotán, which is exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Granada. The finalists were Josué Broca and Saoirse Hickey.
This award, the result of a collaboration between the Spanish Embassy and the ARTES association of Hispanists and experts in Spanish art, was created in 2013 to distinguish young talent in the field of Hispanic arts and culture studies in the United Kingdom.
The award pays tribute to art historian Juan Facundo Riaño, who dedicated his life to promoting and spreading knowledge on ancient Spanish art, especially Islamic and medieval art in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United Kingdom. Riaño played a key role in creating the Victoria and Albert Museum collection in London, which exhibits pieces of Spanish decorative arts.