A macabre photograph of Damien Hirst posing next to a severed head should be removed from an exhibition, say experts from the University of Leicester.
The gruesome black and white image shows the artist as a 16-year-old grinning while crouching next the decapitated remains at a Leeds morgue.
It was taken after Hirst gained access to the mortuary with a friend and picked up the head, which was undergoing a postmortem examination.
The photo, titled With Dead Head, was taken in 1981 and makes up part of an exhibition at a Walsall art gallery called Epstein and Hirst: birth, death and religion.
The controversial image has prompted two academics from the University of Leicester to write to the New Art Gallery Walsall, complaining about the artwork.
Matthew Beamish and Professor Sarah Tarlow, of the university's School of Archaeology and Ancient History, said that the public display is disrespectful to the dead man and goes against all ethical standards.
Professor Tarlow, who has written about the ethics of the excavation and display of the dead, said: "The image is shocking. I don't think it should be on public display. It deserves a place in Hirst's archive, but not in a gallery.
"It is a betrayal of trust to the deceased man, who has evidently donated his body to medical science – a philanthropic act. His body has not been used for a serious purpose.
"To make it worse, his face is potentially recognisable – a family member of neighbour might look at it and recognise him."
The Walsall gallery has responded to the Leicester academics.
However, Professor Tarlow was not convinced with the reply.
"I think the gallery's response to our complaint was irrelevant and totally misses the points we have raised," she said.
"There has been quite a lot written on the picture in the art world – but the writing focuses on either what the picture says about Hirst's 'personal journey' or how the image challenges viewers. It does not acknowledge that there is a third individual involved – the deceased man."
The Mercury has made contact with the gallery, but no one was available for comment.
