T he Richard Prince photograph of Brooke Shields that Tate Modern recently withdrew from the exhibition Pop Life, after Scotland Yard suggested it might break obscenity laws, travelled across the Atlantic carrying a long history of controversy. It shows a year-old Shields, oiled and glistening, naked and made-up, posing in a marble bathtub with a seductive danger that belies her years. It tells you everything about what we fear and desire. Prince, Schorr tells me, has never met Shields. Intent on questioning notions of authorship and originality, he rephotographed an existing image that had already inspired two years of legal debate. It was one of a dozen images of Shields designed, according to Gross, to reveal the not-so-latent sexuality of the prepubescent child.

His body of work is unknown, eclipsed by a single pictorial he undertook for American socialite Teri Shields. In , Garry Gross scribbled his name into a dubious footnote in the history of photography by photographing a nude year-old Brooke Shields. The rest was history — and a rancorous one as that. On this blog, the post of Brooke Shields which detailed the controversy remains the most visited entry , and comments there represent a veritable cross-section of pluralistic viewpoints and range from informed to inane. But apart from occasional interview, Gross remained in semi-retirement.

The piece shows a year-old Shields, nude, oiled, and heavily made-up, standing in a bathtub and looking directly at the camera. The Tate Modern took down the provocative piece called "Spiritual America" by American artist, Richard Prince, after Metropolitan Police launched an investigation. The temporary closure of the room where the photo was exhibited comes after the Metropolitan Police said they were investigating to see if the artwork might violate obscenity laws. The Obscene Publications Committee, a division of the Metropolitan Police department in London, requested the temporary removal of the piece, on the grounds that it might violate the Obscene Publications Act of , which states its intention to "strengthen the law for preventing the publication for gain of obscene matter. Due to the photograph's controversial nature, the Tate Modern says it sought legal advice before deciding to display the piece and planned to display it behind a curtain in a dark room with a sign in front warning viewers of "challenging" material.