50 years ago, on the 16th January 1970, John’s Bag One exhibition was raided by police. Photographed above, Detective Inspector Frederick Luff, the head of Scotland Yard’s obscene publications squad, confiscates one of John’s Bag One lithographs at the London Arts Gallery on New Bond Street, London, while a police officer guards the gallery in the top photo, plus the first 7 lithographs in the Bag One collection - I’ve not included the erotic ones, but they’re available on the internet for anyone who wants to see them - they mostly feature Yoko!
The exhibition of lithographs including several containing erotic imagery, had opened the previous day. The lithographs, known as ‘Bag One’, had been drawn by John in 1969, and chronicled his and Yoko’s wedding ceremony and honeymoon, including several erotic images. The police raided the exhibition the day after it opened following a tip-off from Egham magistrate Nansi Creer that it featured indecent images. The police seized the offending artworks but 50 signed lithograph sets (at £550 each) and 20 individual prints (priced at £40 each) had already been sold.
Ultimately it was decided by the Director of Public Prosecution that John would not be prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act 1964, in case it led to censorship of artworks by other artists who depicted nude figures. Instead he was prosecuted under the Metropolitan Police Act 1839. This made it an offence to distribute indecent material in a public thoroughfare. However, this case was dismissed after three weeks on 27 April 1970, when a magistrate ruled that the London Arts Gallery was not a thoroughfare.
Pics: Evening Standard / Hulton Archive / Getty Images / John Lennon’s Lithographs via Beatlesbible Source: Beatlesbible