Police obscenity squad raid Saatchi gallery: Scotland fascism
10 Mar 2001
Police obscenity squad raid Saatchi gallery
Special report: child protection
Alan Travis, home affairs editor
The Saatchi gallery has been raided by officers from Scotland Yard's
obscene publications unit and warned that they will return to seize
pictures in its current exhibition, I am a Camera, unless the offending
images are removed before the gallery opens its doors to the public
again.
The Metropolitan police confirmed last night that officers had visited
the gallery twice this week after three complaints under anti-child
pornography legislation and a report was being forward to the crown
prosecution service.
The exhibition features the work of a group of artists and photographers
selected by Charles Saatchi himself and taken from his personal
collection of photographs and paintings. It has been running for eight
weeks and has been reviewed in most of the broadsheet papers and
magazines from the Tatler to the Telegraph, without any public
complaints to the gallery.
The police have also warned a London international fine art publisher,
Edward Booth-Clibborn, to remove from sale thousands of copies of his
book I am a Camera, on which the exhibition is based, by next Thursday
or he will also face the threat of prosecution. "The police told me that
they want them 'all out' of the bookstores," he said.
The images at the centre of the police action against the gallery
involve two photographs by Tierney Gearon, a former fashion
photographer, in a series of 15 snapshot-style images that document her
personal family life. They both depict her two children, Emily and
Michael, aged six and four, naked or partly naked while playing. In one
the two children are wearing theatrical masks while in the other her son
is urinating in the snow. The police have also voiced concerns about a
small photograph by Nan Goldin on page 50 of the 499-page book, which
also features pictures by Tracey Emin and Andy Warhol.
Inspector Brian Ward of Scotland Yard's obscene publications and
internet unit first visited the gallery "as a member of the public" to
see the photographs on display before he went to the gallery in St
John's Wood, north London, on Thursday for a second time with other
officers to confront the curator. He told them he would return with a
warrant to seize the pictures if they were not removed before the
gallery reopens to the public next Thursday.
The Met would not confirm last night that it was acting after a
complaint from a Sunday newspaper but Insp Ward told the gallery's
curator, Jenny Blythe, and Mr Booth-Clibborn that he was acting after
receiving complaints from the press and members of the public. A Met
spokeswoman said there had been three separate complaints but was not
prepared to discuss who had made them.
Within hours of the inspector's second visit, Tierney Gearon, the
photographer in question, was visited by two journalists at her home
address initially claiming they were from the Telegraph. They gained
entry while she was out by claiming they had an appointment. The News of
the World last night denied that it was behind the complaint to the
police or had visited the artist's home.
Ms Blythe of Saatchis said the gallery had been shocked by the police's
action and vigorously denied that the photographs in question were in
any way pornographic. "I was so surprised I could not quite believe it,"
she said. "They are funny and delightful. Tierney Gearon is totally
devoted to her children. They are snapshots of her children at play.
They are not depraved in any way."
A leading lawyer on freedom of expression, Geoffrey Robertson, is
believed to have advised the gallery that what it faces amounts to
censorship by police threat and that the depiction of children without
sexual overtones is not indecent.
The police are understood to have taken legal advice before raiding the
gallery and are acting under the 1978 Protection of Children Act, which
makes it a criminal offence to take an indecent photograph of a child.
Police questioned the ITN newsreader Julia Somerville under the act in
1995 over pictures she took of her seven-year-old daughter in the bath.
The CPS took no action.
Mr Booth-Clibborn's book is on sale in bookshops throughout Britain and
also in America, Japan and Germany. One of the controversial photographs
features on the cover of the British edition. He said that police
suggested he cut out the pages that contained the photographs.
The raid is the first on an art gallery since the obscene publications
squad seized pictures by John Lennon and others in the late 1960s.
Any text written by other authors which may be quoted in part or in full
within this coverage of this issue is provided according to U. S. Code
Title 17 "Fair Use" dictates which may be reviewed at
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html If you're an author
of an article and do not wish to allow it to be mirrored or otherwise
provided on The Skeptic Tank web site, let us know and it will be
removed fairly promptly.
Return to The Skeptic Tank's main Index page.
Saturday March 10, 2001
The Guardian
The views and opinions stated within this web page are those of the
author or authors which wrote them and may not reflect the views and
opinions of the ISP or account user which hosts the web page. The
opinions may or may not be those of the Chairman of The Skeptic Tank.