It's window undressing!

One of the pleasures of window shopping is stumbling across something surprising. Rarely, however, do you spot something as surprising as this: an unabashedly nude blonde.

This blonde, though, is no lady. She's a sculpture whose arrival has shattered suburban serenity.

Within hours of its installation in the window of Wimbledon's A Gallery this week, it was groped by a gang of schoolboys and the police were called in.

Entitled This Is Me (Who Am I), the wax, hair and resin work of art is the creation of Marie White, 24, a sculptor who presented the piece at her graduation show at the Wimbledon School Of Art. There, amid a crowd of art cognoscenti, there were no complaints.

But when it was placed in the window of the gallery it was a different story.

The gallery's owner, Fraser Kee Scott, said: "It went in the window at 10am on Wednesday. A lady came in and was interested in it. Then we had some boys from the local school come in and feel her. I shouted at them and they left."

Two police officers arrived that afternoon, alerted by members of the public who had described the statue as "disgusting".

Mr Kee Scott said: "They told me they had had a complaint from someone and asked us to move the statue. I said that I wasn't doing anything illegal.

"They said I was putting something in a public space that was likely to cause offence."

A police spokesman said: "The owner of the gallery agreed to take measures in relation to the statue to ensure that no further offence to members of the public could be caused."

The statue was moved to the side of the shop, where it could not be seen from the street, but only for 24 hours. Now the artist has returned it to the public gaze with two strips of frosted glass to protect public morals.

The police, it is understood, will continue to keep an eye on the situation.

Meanwhile, Mr Kee Scott has been quick to exploit the controversy: since the Evening Standard first contacted the gallery, the work's quoted price has risen from £5,000 to £7,000.