A WORK of art that may breach child pornography laws has been seized from a leading North-East art gallery by police.

It was revealed last night that officers from the Northumbria force removed the exhibit from Gateshead's Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art on Thursday.

It is understood to be an image of a child.

Officers arrived at the gallery, a converted flour mill on the Quayside, as it was about to close after curators raised concerns with centre managers about the exhibit.

Managers were sufficiently worried by what they saw to alert the police. The image was not on public display, but formed part of an exhibition being prepared for public viewing.

The gallery declined to comment last night and did not name the artist involved.

A Northumbria Police spokeswoman said: "We attended the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, in Gateshead, last Thursday, at the invitation of the management, who were seeking advice about an item from an exhibition prior to it going on public display.

"This item is being assessed and Northumbria Police, in consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service, is investigating the circumstances surrounding it."

The image is being examined to see if it breaches the 1978 Protection of Children Act.

Police will investigate where and how the image was produced and whether it has appeared in public before.

Five exhibitions started at the Baltic on Friday, although it is not known whether the seized image formed part of one of them.

The centre's website description of one new exhibition, called Irrespektiv, by US artist Kendell Geers, states: "His work pushes for the limits of accepted moral codes and principles in order to collapse them and start again."

Another new exhibition features work by US artist Nan Goldin from The Sir Elton John Photography Collection.

The exhibition, called Thanksgiving, is described as "a microretrospective installation of photographs documenting the artist's life from 1973 to 1999.

"The installation immerses us in Goldin's world, recording friends and lovers and her own intimate history." There is also the first showing of work by artist in residence Kader Attia.

The website states: "His work explores questions of community, diversity, belonging and exile and the tangle of identity conflicts in the age of globalisation.

"Square Dreams at Baltic creates an apocalyptic vision of western consumerism."

Other new exhibitions include works from the art collection of Newcastle-born Anita Zabludowicz and hand-drawn animation by British artist Suky Best, inspired by the Bupa Great North Run.