The Helsinki criminal police raided artist Ulla Karttunen’s home on Thursday, tabloid newspaper Iltasanomat reveals. The raid took place after Karttunen had been questioned at the Pasila police station.
The authorities confiscated Karttunen’s computer, camera memory card, and CD-ROM disks. According to the artist the items contained work from her Musta Madonna (Black Madonna) series.
Last week the police seized one of the artist’s works from an exhibition at the Kluuvi Gallery. The work titled Neitsythuorakirkko (Virgin-Whore Church) includes images with child pornographic themes. The work’s images originate from the Internet. The confiscation took place on the opening day of the exhibition after an individual took offence at the piece and reported it to the police.
Ulla Karttunen has pointed out that the accompanying texts indicated quite explicitly that the artwork was critical of child pornography and of the eroticising of children.
