Museum Yanks Nude Photo of Tween Brooke

Pic may violate child porn laws in Britain
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 1, 2009 3:03 AM CDT
Museum Yanks Nude Photo of Tween Brooke
Brooke Shields speaks at the memorial service for music legend Michael Jackson in Los Angeles earlier this year.   (AP Photo/Gabriel Bouys, pool)

The Tate Modern has yanked a nude photo of a young Brooke Shields from an exhibit following a visit by police investigating whether the picture violates child pornography laws in Britain. The controversial photo by New York artist Richard Prince shows a heavily made-up 10-year-old Shields standing naked in a bathtub. Angry critics charged the photo encouraged pedophilia. The photograph is similar to a scene from the movie Pretty Baby in which Shields plays the young daughter of a prostitute whose virginity is auctioned off at the age of 12.

"The exhibit is temporarily closed. We are in discussions with police," a museum spokesman tells the Telegraph. The Tate was displaying the photo, entitled Spiritual America, in a separate room behind a closed door with a warning that the work was "challenging." Prince's work is a photo of a photo commissioned by Shields' mom in 1975 to promote her daughter's career. The actress waged an unsuccessful court battle to gain control of the negatives after her mother signed away the rights.
(More Brooke Shields stories.)

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