Brooke Shields controversy: Tate Modern exhibits hardcore porn in same show

The gallery was forced to withdraw a photograph of a 10-year-old Shields from the show after police warned that it could constitute child pornography.

However, visitors to the opening day of the Pop Life exhibition were confronted with other, far more explicit imagery, including a video installation of a female artist, Andrea Fraser, who paid a stranger $20,000 to have sexual intercourse with her on camera. 

A room devoted to the artist Jeff Koons features giant canvases of hardcore sexual acts, while another room is lined with images taken from pornographic magazines. They are the work of Cosey Fanni Tutti, a one-time porn actress formerly known as Christine Newby.

The installations carried an over-18s warning but gallery staff made no attempt to verify visitors' ages, and many of those viewing the exhibition on its first day were teenagers.

Soledad Canal, a 19-year-old Spanish tourist, said she had no idea that the show would feature x-rated content. "I am shocked. I could not believe my eyes. I came to see Andy Warhol pictures and I did not expect to see things like this in a museum," she said.

Hugh McKinney, chairman of the National Family Campaign, said the works had no place in a gallery visited by families. "You have to ask if this is appropriate material for a gallery as prestigious as the Tate. There is a fine line between art and pornography in some cases. Families visit the Tate, and there is a real possibility that under-age and impressionable young people could see these works."

The room which was to have displayed the Brooke Shields picture by artist Richard Prince stood empty yesterday. The Tate temporarily withdrew the image following a visit by officers from the Metropolitan Police obscene publications unit, but is debating whether to reinstate it with a more detailed warning about its content displayed on the wall outside.