A very controversial nude picture of Brooke Shields taken when she was just a young 10 years old has been removed from an exhibitions at London’s Tate Modern after police visited the museum. Raising concerns after some deemed it pornographic, it was removed after a police investigation. The police are currently trying to figure out if the picture breaks child porn laws over there.
Per People:
“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 offense to their visitors,” a Scotland Yard spokesman said, confirming the Wednesday visit by the Obscene Publications Unit.
Artist Richard Prince’s image is of a photo taken in 1975 by Garry Gross with the permission of her mother, Teri Shields, who immediately signed her rights to the picture away. The image shows Shields from the knees up wearing heavy makeup, covered in oil, and standing naked in a bathtub. Children’s rights advocates were extremely upset when they learned the photo might be part of the London art show, “Pop Life: Art in a Material World”. They state that the image could act as a “magnet for pedophiles.” Gross he never considered the photo pornographic but acknowledges that “she was supposed to look like a sexy woman.”
Per OMG:
“The photo has been infamous from the day I took it and I intended it to be,” Gross told the paper, adding he was “disappointed but not surprised” with the authorities decision.
Jack Bankowsky, co-curator of the exhibit, previously said that he had hoped controversy over the photo’s subject matter would not overshadow the artistic interest of the work. Scheduled to open today in London, the room containing the portrait has been reportedly closed off. It is unknown at this time if the photograph will go on display.
Shields attempted to buy back the negatives of the 1975 photograph in 1981 but a judge ruled that she was a “hapless victim of a contract… to which two grasping adults bound her.” Shields career was managed by her mother at that time, who also allowed her to play a child who lived in a brothel in the 1978 film “Pretty Baby,” which included several nude scenes for the actress who was only 11 years old at the time. As a mother I can’t ever imagine putting my daughter in some strange situation like that. Art – Really? And what supposedly was supposed to be the “intent” behind that picture? A mother is supposed to protect their children, not pimp them out.
Images Via: wenn.com
