The Texan police department investigating the confiscated Sally Mann photographs spent almost $7,000 of taxpayers’ money on a fruitless fact-finding mission to New York City.
A group of officers took a four-day trip to New York to visit the city’s museums which hold Mann’s work. They are the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
ARTnews reports that the officers were there to “gather information” on the famous photographer that “might be pertinent to their investigation.”
However, the trip may have proven futile since none of Mann’s work was on display when the officers were in New York. Fort Worth Report notes that Mann’s artwork held by the four aforementioned museums hasn’t been on display “for several years.”
Nevertheless, the officers spent over $2,500 on accommodation, another $1,500 for airfare, over $2,000 in daily expenses, and other costs including $670 to enter museums that weren’t displaying Mann’s photos. All in all, the bill came to $6,988.77.
An attorney from The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas tells the Fort Worth Report that “our leaders should focus on real problems affecting Texans instead of spending taxpayer money funding field trips across the country in the name of censorship.”
Chloe Kempf adds, “The government’s shameful and failed attempt to persecute Sally Mann’s photography not only intimidated Texas’ art community and threatened all our First Amendment rights, but it also appears to have wasted costly time and resources.”
The news of the expensive trip to Manhattan comes after Fort Worth police returned Mann’s photographs which were confiscated in January as part of a child pornography investigation. They have since been returned to the artist.
“The fact-finding mission was planned efficiently to allow investigators the ability to divide and conquer a large footprint of museums and see the artwork on display in real-time,” police spokesperson Chelsea Kretz tells the Fort Worth Report. “The decision to send personnel was based on the importance of our commitment to ensuring a comprehensive investigation.”
Kretz adds that while the officers didn’t get to see any of Mann’s photos, they instead spoke with museum employees and curators in a bid to understand the exhibition process.
An Investigation That Has Rumbled on for Months
Mann is considered one of the most talented photographers of her generation but her intimate portraits of children have received both acclaim and criticism. A federal prosecutor once told Mann that some of her photos could subject her to arrest.
Back in January, four of her pictures were seized from The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth after a reporter from conservative online news outlet The Dallas Express visited the exhibit and accused the museum of “promoting child pornography.”
Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare picked up on the reports and criticized the exhibition. “Sexual exploitation of a minor, under the guise of ‘art,’ should never be tolerated,” he wrote on X. However, the charges against Mann were dropped after a grand jury declined to take action.
Aaron Terr, director of public advocacy for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, tells the Fort Worth Report that the trip to New York was “unnecessary”.
“It was not necessary for the police to go to New York for this investigation because the investigation was a sham,” Terr says. “It was a waste of time for the police to even go to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth to seize the photos, let alone all the way to New York.”
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