Photos seized by police from the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in January have been returned, according to three free speech groups.
Fort Worth Police removed the four photos by photographer Sally Mann following allegations the images constituted child pornography.
News of their return comes nearly one month after a Tarrant County Grand Jury decided evidence submitted by the department warranted no further action.
“The return of Mann’s photographs brings a welcome end to a shocking abuse of government power,” said Aaron Terr, director of public advocacy for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. “Police had no business storming into a museum and seizing art like contraband. They picked a fight with the First Amendment and lost.”
The photographs were part of the temporary exhibition, Diaries of Home, which highlighted work from women and nonbinary artists.
Mann had 21 images in the show, including some where her children were shown in the nude.
The images, which were taken more than 30 years ago and have been exhibited around the globe, have been both praised and vilified since their creation.
When the photos were displayed at the Milwaukee Art Museum in 1991, local police also looked into complaints alleging child pornography but did not seize any photos.
The county attorney decided to drop the case.
More than 30 years later, the Danbury Institute, a Christian nonprofit based in Washington D.C. circulated a petition calling for the Fort Worth museum to remove the images, which they described as disturbing and inappropriate.
“This is more than a local issue,” the petition read in part. “If such exhibits go unchallenged in Fort Worth, they risk becoming normalized nationwide. Christians and concerned citizens cannot stand idly by while child exploitation is reframed as art.”
The National Coalition Against Censorship celebrated the images’ return.
“It brings the last bit of closure to a sensationalized and protracted investigation, and also because it represents the rightful check on the abuse of government power,” said Elizabeth Larison, director of NCAC’s Art & Culture Advocacy Program. “Artistic freedom won, and artists can and should continue to exercise this right.”
KERA News reached out to Mann, the gallery that represents her, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and the Fort Worth Police Department and will update this story with any comment.
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