Sir Elton artwork seized by child porn police

A photograph from the personal collection of Sir Elton John has been seized from an art gallery by police investigating child pornography.

The picture, Klara and Edda belly-dancing, was taken by controversial photographer Nan Goldin. It was on display at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, where it was on loan from the singer.

The image, depicting the image of two naked young girls, had been exhibited as artwork across the world without any objections, a spokesperson for the singer said.

Northumbria Police were alerted by gallery managers the day before five collections were due to be unveiled.

Detectives will now assess whether the artwork seized from the art centre to determine whether it breaches pornography laws.

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".

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"

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