Shades of the 1989-91 campaign against the US National Endowment for the
Arts:

The British press reports this morning that the West Midlands Police have
"suggested" to the Principal and the Librarian of the University of
Central England, Birmingham, that they should remove from the University
Library and destroy the Library's copy of "Mapplethorpe", and have also
warned the UK publisher Jonathan Cape about the book (which has been on
sale for several years)  "suggesting" that the whole of the remaining
stock should be withdrawn and pulped.

Another alarming aspect is that the police are reported to have become
involved when someone outside the University intercepted and passed onto
the police some work of a student preparing a thesis.

There seems to be no indication to date as to what might happen now that
the Vice-Chancellor/Principal has publicly rejected the police "advice".



Patrick J. Boylan  (Professor of Arts Policy and Management)

City University, Frobisher Crescent, Barbican, London EC2Y 8HB, UK;
phone: +44-171-477.8750, fax:+44-171-477.8887; e-mail: [log in to unmask]
World Wide Web site: http://www.city.ac.uk/artspol/