Elton John Sort Of Owns Something That’s Possibly Kiddie Porn

Elton John loves collecting stuff. Whether it's platinum albums, outrageous spectacles, crazy outfits, CDs, child pornography, flowers - anything - you can bet your bottom dollar that Elton John has had a go at collecting it at some point.

Wait a minute! Did we… did we just say that Elton John enjoys collecting crazy outfits? Well, yes we did. But in all honesty the child pornography thing was the relevant bit. Even though, strictly speaking, Elton John might not own any actual child pornography. Police in Gateshead last week raided an art gallery to seize an exhibit - a photograph entitled Klara and Edda belly-dancing by Nan Goldin - that they've judged to be kiddie porn, and now Elton John has revealed that he's the owner of the exhibit. Of course, it's worth pointing out that deliberately-provocative art such as this may have a greater meaning that reflects on the world around it, plus the subjective nature of art appreciation has allowed Klara and Edda belly-dancing to be shown in several other exhibitions without police intervention.

But, mainly, we think our point is this: Urrr! Elton John likes looking at kiddie porn, the big disgusting nonce.

By and large, Elton John is a man who's more easily characterised by all the things he doesn't like - be it the internet or organised religion or walking or his own record label or the way young people don't dress like Donald Duck these days - than by the things he does. But that's not to say that Elton John hates everything. Sit Elton John down and offer him a smelly candle endorsement or a life-sized chocolate Elton John statue or some borderline-pornographic images of pre-pubescent girls with their legs splayed towards a camera and Elton John couldn't be happier.

Unfortunately it's the latter that has sort of got Elton John indirectly involved in what some might assume to term trouble. As one of the world's leading authorities on photographic art - seriously - Elton John has bought thousands of artworks in his time. But the only one that matters now is Klara and Edda belly-dancing by Nan Goldin, an artist who made her name recording New York's squalid underbelly on camera. Klara and Edda belly-dancing forms part of the larger Thanksgiving installation which includes photos of masturbation and drug-taking. But only Klara and Edda belly-dancing has caused a furore, because it's the only one that shows a naked young girl laying underneath another girl, graphically spread out in front of the camera.

Nan Goldin's Thanksgiving has recently been on show at The Baltic Centre For Contemporary Art in Gateshead, although when word got out to local police, they were all like "The Balls-out Centre For Contemporary Kiddie Porn, more like" and seized Klara and Edda belly-dancing over fears that it might actually be child pornography. And, in a posting on his website, Elton John has owned up that the image is his:

The photograph entitled "Klara and Edda belly-dancing" (1998) is one of 149 images comprising the "Thanksgiving" installation by renowned US photographer Nan Goldin. The 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 we are aware.

It's a tricky situation and no mistake. On the one hand you could accuse Gateshead police of being the kind of meat-headed philistines who'd get antsy because the Venus De Milo wasn't wearing a bra, although on the other hand the Venus De Milo isn't as deeply unsettling to look at as a piece of art as Klara and Edda belly-dancing.

However, at least the police taking Elton John's photograph has started a debate on where the line between art and pornography is - and we couldn't be happier about it. Frankly, the moment that we're able to define the Meg White sex tape as a piece of art, we'll be able to add 'proud patron of the visual mediums' on our CV where it currently reads 'pervert'.

Read more:

Sir Elton John Owns Photo Seized From Exhibition By Child Porn Police - Times