The 'art' of war: An installation of death

It is, depending on your view, a rusting heap of junk, a piece of conceptual art, or a monument to civilians killed or maimed in conflicts around the world.

From next month this wreckage – once a Japanese family saloon – will become a permanent exhibit at London's Imperial War Museum.

The car was destroyed by a bomb that killed 38 people in a Baghdad market in 2007. It was salvaged by the British Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller for an exhibition at the New Museum in New York and a tour of the US last year.

"It's making the point that, at the beginning of the 20th century, 90 per cent of people killed in conflicts were military and 10 per cent were civilians," Roger Tolson, the museum's head of art said. "Now that figure is reversed: 90 per cent of those killed in war are civilians."

Baghdad – 5 March 2007 will be at the Imperial War Museum, London, from 9 September and at the Imperial War Museum North, in Manchester, from 11 April 2011.