Klara and Edda belly-dancing
(picture/photo is here), a photograph of two naked girls taken by female American artist Nan Goldin in 1998 is collected by Sir Elton John. It is one of 149 images comprising the "Thanksgiving" installation Elton John purchased the "Thanksgiving" installation from the White Cube gallery in London in 1999.
According to the Eltonjohn.com, the Klara and Edda belly-dancing 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 Sir Elton John and his company/agent are aware.
But now when the installation is on loan to the Baltic Centre For Contemporary Art in Newcastle, the 'Klara And Edda Belly-dancing' depicting one of the girls sitting on the ground with her legs spread wide apart has accused of violating child pornography laws.
Northumbria Police seized the controversial photograph after they were tipped by Baltic managerson 20 September the day before it was to be viewed by the public and put on a warning in the gallery: "We would like to advise you that this exhibition contains some material of a sensitive nature. It may include explicit language, nudity, sexual imagery or violence."
From the reactions of viewers below, you can decide if you'd like to take your underaged children to see Sir Elton John's collection:
One viewer of the gallery claimed today: "Some of the images are quite uncomfortable but I saw nothing that could be construed as pornographic.
"There a man holding his penis, which is a bit odd, and pictures of people in coffins who appear to be dead but may not be."
"There are three exhibitions with very bizarre content and all carry warnings. Nan Goldin's was the most uncomfortable of the three but there was certainly nothing in any of them that I found grossly offensive."
Source: Nan Goldin Klara And Edda Belly Dancing Child Porn? Elton John Reacts @ Post Chronicle
Sir Elton owns 'porn probe' photo @ BBC