A photograph owned by Sir Elton John has been seized by police after being displayed at an exhibition.
Police have confiscated the photograph titled 'Kiara and Edda Belly-Dancing' from the Baltic Gallery in the English town of Gateshead.British media reported today that the photograph features the image of a young girl with her legs apart.
However, at Elton's official website, a statement has been posted saying "The photograph entitled "Klara and Edda belly-dancing" (1998) is one of 149 images comprising the "Thanksgiving" installation by renowned US photographer Nan Goldin".
"The photograph exists as part of the installation as a whole and has been widely published and exhibited throughout the world. It can be found in the monograph of Ms Goldin's works entitled "The Devil's Playground" (Phaidon, 2003), has been offered for sale at Sotheby's New York in 2002 and 2004, and has previously been exhibited in Houston, London, Madrid, New York, Portugal, Warsaw and Zurich without any objections of which we are aware."
"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."
"Elton John purchased the "Thanksgiving" installation from the White Cube gallery in London in 1999, and the installation is presently on loan to The Baltic Centre For Contemporary Art in Newcastle."
This is not the first time that Police have taken action over a Goldin photograph. In 2001, Goldin's photograph's very removed from a London gallery because they were considered "indecent".
