Metro

Model arrested for nudity in art project sues NYPD, city

A model who was arrested for offering up her nude body as a canvas for a Times Square art stunt is suing the NYPD and the city, citing illegal censorship.

Model Karla Storie painted by Andy Golub.Andrew Koenig

Karla Storie, 30, of Texas participated in painter Andy Golub’s widely publicized body-painting exhibition in July 2011.

Artist Andy GolubBill Davila/startraksphoto

She says she only dropped her underwear for “seconds” before her nether region was covered by paint.

But she was cuffed in the pedestrian plaza at 44th Street and Broadway and charged with public lewdness and exposure.

State law “does not criminalize public nudity when engaged in it for purposes of an exhibition of art,” Storie’s Manhattan civil suit states.

“It’s pretty clear the cops were wrong,” said Storie’s attorney Stuart Jacobs. Indeed, the charges were dismissed in April 2012.

Cops tried to “censor Andrew Golub” when they arrested her, the suit says.

Storie is asking for unspecified damages.

A fellow model who participated in the same stunt won a $15,000 settlement from the city in 2012.

Her lawyer, Ron Kuby, said the NYPD’s attitude toward nudity has changed, noting that Golub held another exhibition at the Crossroads of the World just last week without incident.

“I believe the police have been re-trained as to the proper handling of a naked woman,” Kuby quipped.

A city Law Department spokesman said, “We will review this lawsuit once we are served” with legal papers.