Gallery director questioned over photo exhibit

A fashionable art gallery was at the centre of child pornography investigation yesterday after displaying a photograph of a naked 12-year-old girl.

The picture by the renowned Swiss artist Annelies Strba – depicting her daughter Sonja in the bath – is hanging at the Rhodes+Mann gallery in Shoreditch, east London, and Scotland Yard said the gallery director, Fred Mann, faced possible criminal charges under the Obscene Publications Act.

Officers interviewed Mr Mann yesterday and took away a copy of the photograph from the gallery after a woman complained the image was "paedophiliac and offensive".

Mr Mann, 31, said: "Annelies Strba is a very famous and eminent international artist whose work has appeared in countless galleries. Her work does contain photographs of children and some are naked but they are certainly not pornographic.

"When we were putting this exhibition together, the last thing that occurred to us was there would be any kind of scandal."

The photograph, which has been displayed in galleries across Europe, is part of the Over Time exhibition featuring three female photographers – Strba, Amy Steiner and Melanie Manchot.

The picture of Sonja, taken in 1985, is part of a larger collection of photographs of family members, which also include the artist's two other children and four-year-old grandson.

"The police said if they decide I am in possession of something pornographic or illegal, they are going to arrest me," Mr Mann added.

"They asked me if I would be prepared to take it down but I said no because I feel they are exercising censorship where it isn't needed – although if they decide to take action against me I'm not going to have much choice. It is quite upsetting. We are an art gallery and suddenly we are being associated with paedophilia."

Scotland Yard said officers would be consulting the Crown Prosecution Service. "Police have taken copies of the photograph and are seeking advice as to whether it contravenes the Obscene Publications Act," a spokeswoman said.

Detectives were called in after a woman contacted a local newspaper to say that her young son had been upset after spotting the picture while waiting for a bus outside. The newspaper approached police.

* Education officials were forced to climb down yesterday over guidelines that in effect banned parents from photographing their children's school activities. Edinburgh City Council was criticised and threatened with legal action by irate parents, after it advised that photographing or filming sporting events and nativity plays should be prohibited unless all parents agreed.