A photograph at the centre of a child pornography investigation belongs to Sir Elton John, his website states.
"Klara and Edda belly-dancing" by Nan Goldin was seized by police from Gateshead's Baltic Centre on 20 September, the singer's spokesman said.
The image of two naked young girls is part of an exhibition owned by Sir Elton, which is on loan to the Baltic. A spokesman for the singer said the photograph had been exhibited around the world without objections.
Northumbria Police were alerted by Baltic managers the day before five collections were due to be unveiled.
A statement on the singer's website said the image, part of the Thanksgiving exhibition, was from a monograph of the American photographer's works entitled "The Devil's Playground".
Item assessed
It was offered for sale at Sotheby's New York in 2002 and 2004, and exhibited in Houston, London, Madrid, New York, Portugal, Warsaw and Zurich.
The statement added: "Elton John is known as one of the world's foremost collectors of photographic art and has several thousand photographs in his collection, including works by Man Ray, Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Diane Arbus and Ansel Adams."
Goldin, 54, who is well known for her shots of young, semi-clothed girls, was not available to comment.
In March 2001, police were called to the Saatchi Gallery in north London after complaints that controversial photographs of naked children, taken by Goldin, were indecent and would appeal to paedophiles. But the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said that after careful consideration there was no realistic prospect of any conviction under the Protection of Children Act 1978.
On Wednesday a CPS spokeswoman said it was offering preliminary advice in the Baltic investigation, but would not be directly involved until a file had been received from police officers. A Northumbria Police spokeswoman said: "We attended the Baltic last Thursday at the invitation of management, who were seeking advice about an item from an exhibition prior to it going on public display.
"This item is being assessed and Northumbria Police, in consultation with the CPS, is investigating the circumstances surrounding it."
A gallery spokeswoman said no exhibitions were being removed as a result.
Original source
BBC
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Is this political correctness gone completely wrong or do we have to treat this serious in order to protect our children? There are many example photos of semi clothed or naked children taken by so called credible photographers, these obviously end up in either private collection or as in the case above, displayed in public at galleries etc. At what point do you think the line is crossed, I notice that the article above also states that this photo has been exhibited previously in many galleries all over the world…what are your views?