INVESTIGATIONS are continuing into whether a potential exhibit from a flagship North-East art gallery breaches child pornography laws.

Northumbria Police are examining the piece - thought to be a photograph that features a young girl - after being called in by the management of Gateshead's Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art last Thursday.

Five exhibitions opened the following day, but everyone involved in the case was last night tight-lipped about the identity of the artist and refused to say what type of artwork it is.

A spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service's Northumbria area said: "We have given police some preliminary advice in relation to this and they have gone away to investigate.

"When we get a file from them we'll look at it and make a decision. The investigation is at an early stage."

A Baltic spokeswoman said: "We don't have any plans to make any further statements."

A Northumbria Police spokeswoman said: "There is nothing to add to what we have said. We are not giving any information that could identify the image or the owner."

Police have said they looking to see if the 1978 Protection of Children Act has been breached.

Durham University law professor Clare McGlynn said she thought that this indicated that the item in question is a photograph or pseudo-photograph rather than a painting or other type of artwork.

Prof McGlynn, who has called for tougher measures against extreme internet child pornography, said photographs of naked children had to feature erotic poses before they could be considered pornographic. "What is different about it is that the gallery management have gone to the police because they are not sure.

"Usually, a member of the public, an MP or the Daily Mail goes up in arms about something on display.

"I would be taking it more seriously because it has come from the gallery."

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