Sir Elton John has confirmed that he is the owner of a photograph seized by police from an art gallery over concerns that it was child pornography.

A statement posted yesterday on the singer’s website said that the picture was by a respected photographer and had been published and exhibited widely.

Klara and Edda belly-dancing, by Nan Goldin, shows two young girls playing together in front of a kitchen sink. One is skimpily dressed, the other is naked and lies beneath her, knees bent and legs splayed towards the camera. The image was seized by police from the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead last Thursday.

Police and the gallery’s owners refused to confirm the identity of the artist or the work involved but Sir Elton, whose vast photograph collection includes works by artists such as Diane Arbus and Ansel Adams, decided to come forward and defend Goldin’s reputation. He said on his website: “The photograph entitled Klara and Edda belly-dancing (1998) is one of 149 images comprising the Thanksgivinginstallation by renowned US photographer Nan Goldin.

“The photograph exists as part of the installation as a whole and has been widely published and exhibited throughout the world. It can be found in the monograph of Ms Goldin’s works entitled The Devil’s Playground, has been offered for sale at Sotheby’s New York in 2002 and 2004, and has previously been exhibited in Houston, London, Madrid, New York, Portugal, Warsaw and Zurich without any objections of which we are aware.”

Thanksgiving was first shown at the White Cube Gallery in Central London in 1999, after which Sir Elton bought it. Honey Luard, of the White Cube, said: “The image would have been part of our show. To my memory there was no outcry at the time. Nobody objected to the picture. Nan Goldin is internationally acclaimed, a highly respected artist.” Goldin, 54, made her name recording the intimate details of her life among drug addicts, drag queens and alcoholics in New York. Her work was recently part of a French police investigation into child sex. Other photographs in Thanksgivingshow her friends masturbating and taking drugs.

Rachel Campbell-Johnston, the Times chief art critic, said that Goldin’s work pushed the boundaries but was redeemed by the documentary style employed: “She always says that the difference between her work and pornography is that she is capturing what’s in front of her. Reality can be raw and uncomfortable. Children do do things like this as anyone with a couple of little girls has seen. It’s in the eye of the viewer whether it’s pornographic.”

Despite the artist’s credentials, mothers in Newcastle upon Tyne were pleased yesterday that police had removed the image.

Hannah Wilson, 28, who has two children, said: “You feel wrong and uncomfortable looking at it, as though you’ve trespassed somewhere you shouldn’t be.”

Anne McDonald, 42, a mother of three girls, said: “I don’t find it offensive. It’s a perfectly natural picture of two little girls playing together. Inside the household, or even in a family album, it would cause no offence. But it has no place in an art gallery.”

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