Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton nude pictures exhibition cancelled after artist concedes photos were 'stolen property'

'It wasn't just about being hacked images anymore,' artist XVALA said. 'People were identifying with victimisation'

Jennifer Lawrence at the Vanity Fair Academy Awards party in February 2014

In the least surprising news since all that news about various famous people being upset that naked photographs of them had leaked on the internet, the art exhibition planning to display life-sized lewd shots of Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton has been cancelled.

Though not, says the artist behind it, due to legal reasons. But instead because he’s had a moral change of heart.

UPDATE: Jennifer Lawrence Confirmed To Appear At This Event

"It wasn't just about being 'hacked' images anymore, but now presented in the media as stolen property," XVALA said.

"People were identifying with Jennifer Lawrence's and Kate Upton's victimisation, much more than I had anticipated, which is powerfully persuasive.

"This concept was always about self-examination in our current culture. Why we feel the need to know and cross the lines of other individuals' privacy."

The exhibition, titled 'No Delete', which was set to take place at the Cory Allen Contemporary Art gallery in St Petersburg, Florida also became the subject of several angry online petitions.

Even more unsurprisingly, it seems that while the leaked nude photos will no longer feature, XVALA has used the publicity wisely to relaunch it with his own nude life-size images.

"It was inspiring to see people take action through a petition, signing their name and not just commenting on a thread," gallery owner Corey Allen said in a press statement.

"The public's response to cancel the event wasn't just about invasion of privacy, but becoming more of an issue of the exploitation of women; specifically the two celebrities. Empathising with these real concerns, the artist decided to turn the cameras around on him; wanting the focus to be about an individual's privacy and not just the exploitation of women."

Over 100 household names were the target of online thieves, who stole scores of naked photographs and intimate videos and posted them on the website 4Chan, two weeks ago.

Several of the images – in particular, two of Lawrence – quickly circulated on Twitter.

Among others the list included Ariana Grande, Jessica Brown Findlay, Mary E Winstead, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Mary Kate Olsen, Mary E Winstead, Cara Delevingne, Kate Bosworth, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Kate Upton, Kirsten Dunst and Kaley Cuoco.

The FBI and Apple are both conducting investigations into the apparent widespread invasion of personal accounts thought to be connected to the iCloud service.

A spokesperson for Lawrence said: "This is a flagrant violation of privacy. The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence."

Justice and Grande said that the pictures are fake, although Lawrence’s spokesperson verified the mages of the actress were authentic.

Meanwhile, representatives for Upton said they were "looking into" the authenticity of the indecent images.

Ricky Gervais went on a back tracking spree on the social media site after he was criticised for 'victim blaming', while Emma Watson also took to Twitter to voice her condemnation of the breach.