First test of decency laws as gallery faces court over 'obscene' statue of Christ

The sculpture was the most provocative item in an exhibition at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead.

Other pieces in the show by the controversial Chinese-born artist Terence Koh included models of Mickey Mouse and ET, also with erections.

Complaint: Terence Koh's statue of Christ

Despite signs warning of the exhibition’s explicit nature, the gallery, which opened in 2003 after a £35million grant from the Arts Council, received numerous complaints.

A private prosecution has now been launched and the first hearing in what could prove a landmark case has been set for September.

Legal documents claim that the gallery has both offended public decency and breached Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986.

The maximum penalty for outraging public decency is six months’ imprisonment and a £5,000 fine.

The documents claim that the foot-high sculpture was ‘offensive and disgusting’ and ‘likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to Christians and those of other faiths’.

Controversial: Chinese-born artist Terence Ko

Legal experts said yesterday that the hearing would be the first test of public decency legislation since the Government scrapped Britain’s ancient blasphemy laws in May.

A number of visitors to the Baltic exhibition, which was staged between September 2007 and January this year, said that a far greater outcry could have resulted if the statue had been of Mohammed rather than Christ.

The prosecution has been launched by Emily Mapfuwa, 40, an NHS administrator from Brentwood, Essex, who read about the exhibition in newspapers. ‘I don’t think this gallery would insult Muslims in this way, so why Christians?’ she said.

Father Christopher Warren, of the Roman Catholic cathedral of St Mary’s in Newcastle upon Tyne, said: ‘For Christians the image of Jesus is very special and to interpret it in a sexualised way is an affront to what we hold dear.’

The Baltic said yesterday that it had yet to receive a copy of the summons.

This is not the first controversy for New York-based Koh, or the Baltic. In 2006, two works by the artist were withdrawn from an exhibition at the Royal Academy.

One of them showed a Virgin Mary with a phallus at a urinal.

Police visited the Baltic in September after complaints about a photograph, owned by Sir Elton John, of two naked girls. The picture was removed.