A controversial nude portrait of Brooke Shields taken when she was 10 years old has been removed from London’s Tate Modern after police visited the museum, Britain’s Daily Telegraph reported.
Artist Richard Prince’s picture – which is a photograph of a 1975 photograph shot by Garry Gross with the permission of the actress’ mother, Teri Shields – raised concerns after some deemed it pornographic. The image shows a young Shields wearing heavy makeup and standing nude in a bathtub.
“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,” a Scotland Yard spokesman told the paper.
The portrait was scheduled to be shown as part of the “Pop Life: Art in a Material World” exhibit, scheduled to open today in London. The room containing the portrait has been reportedly closed off.
“The exhibit is temporarily closed. We are in discussions with police,” a spokesman for the Tate Modern told the paper.
Gross said the response to his 1975 photograph was expected.
“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.
In 1981, Shields reportedly attempted to buy back the negatives of the 1975 photograph, which the Prince work is based on, but a judge ruled that she was a “hapless victim of a contract… to which two grasping adults bound her.”
Prince’s photograph was previously shown stateside at New York’s Guggenheim Museum without incident.
Copyright © 2024 by NBC Universal, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be republished, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.