Entertainment

Storefront nude: art or tart?

Snow was falling hard yesterday, but 25-year-old art model Megan Hanford was hardly bundled up. Instead, she spent the afternoon totally naked, standing in the window of a West Village art gallery.

“I’m art,” she said. “This is freedom of speech and freedom of expression.”

Despite the, ahem, revealing presence, to Megan there is nothing erotic or lewd about her naked display in the window.

“I’m not gyrating up there or beckoning to the crowd,” she said yesterday.

“I don’t think there is anything about my body that is going to scar the minds of young children.”

Manhattan artist Brian Reed, 25, who created the shark egg and wire sculpture that is suspended over the model in the window, says that her nudity is an absolutely essential to displaying his art. Police officers disagreed, and on Sunday stopped at the gallery to ask Megan to get out of the window.

But she was back yesterday, presenting herself to Christopher Street. In a telephone interview yesterday, NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said that police were not likely to interfere again.

“Unless it involves lewd conduct, it’s not illegal to be naked as part of a performance or exhibit,” he said.

Chair and Maiden gallery owner John Dabu, who helped secure sponsorship for the exhibit through Fund Art Now, said he intends to keep Megan in the window, from 3 to 7 p.m., though the coming weeks.

While most passers-by yesterday seemed more worried about their footing in the snow than the naked woman in the window, some of the gallery’s neighbors were not happy with the display. Among them are staffers at Doodle Doo’s, a children’s gift shop just down the block.

“We get it, we understand it’s supposed to be art,” said staffer Liz Wach. “But it does seem like they are selling the girl more than the sculpture work. And there are lots of kids walking on this block. So maybe it would be more appropriate not to have her in the window right when school is getting out.”

jsilverman@nypost.com