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Nude Photo of 10-Year-Old Brooke Shields Removed from Tate: Photo
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by Amy Judd | September 30, 2009 at 12:59 pm
9419 views | 18 Recommendations | 3 comments
The nude photo of a 10-year-old Brooke Shields has been removed from the Tate Modern Gallery in London by the police as there is a concern it could be in breach of child pornography laws. The photograph was set to go on display October 1st as part of the exhibition called Pop Life: Art In A Material World.
The photo is entitled Spiritual America and shows the young actress standing naked in a bathtub, staring at the camera with a heavily made-up face and an oiled torso.
Part of the photograph can be seen here.
This photo on display was taken by Richard Prince, but it is a photograph of a photograph, with the original taken by Garry Cross and commissioned by Brooke Shield's mother.
Police officers from the Metropolitan Police went to the Tate yesterday and have removed the photograph as it could breach the Obscene Publications Act.
Children's campaigners called the picture a 'magnet for paedophiles'.
It was even hung in its own room behind closed doors with the warning that the work was challenging to the viewer. The Tate had consulted lawyers before exhibiting the picture, but now the exhibit is temporarily closed and they are in discussions with police.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "Officers from the Obscene Publications Unit met with staff at the Tate Modern regarding an image. The officers have specialist experience in this field and are keen to work with gallery management to ensure that they do not inadvertently break the law or cause any offence to their visitors."
Ms. Shields had tried to buy the negatives for the picture in 1981, but the judge ruled she was a 'hapless victime of a contract... to which two grasping adults bound her'.
The photograph had appeared once in a Playboy Press publication, but this would have been the first time it would have been shown in a British gallery.
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Recommendations (18)
generaldecay
Yorkshire, United Kingdom
caj1
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
smkovalinsky
New York, New York, United States
Roy C
Vancouver, Washington, United States
Sputnic
London, United Kingdom
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (3)
at 13:55 on September 30th, 2009
So playboy published child porn ! No other way to describe it. Why oil ? Why make up ? Why naked ? Did her parents go to the same parties as Roman Polanski ?
at 17:19 on September 30th, 2009
Good move by the police! The actress Brooke Shields has publicly distanced herself from her mother since growing up. The photo doesn't seem that artistic anyway....
- reply
Zig Ziggerson (not verified)at 08:20 on October 1st, 2009
This is truly absurd. In our culture, we're more afraid of images of nude children than of terrorist attacks and global warming. We let the absurd notion of a picture attracting "pedophiles" justify the police acting as art critics. We find any notion of interplay between children and sex signing us up for a righteous witch hunt for a phantom menace; namely the man (or woman) who is inappropriately "turned on" by such pictures. Who is a pedophile, exactly? If all it takes to be classified as a pedophile is to see something sexual in the image of a nude 10-year old girl, I would suggest the police are pedophiles. They're the ones who claim to see "sex" in the picture. When it comes to children and sexuality, 21st century society is off its collective rocker.