The Palace Museum in Beijing reported an unauthorized photo shoot of a nude model last month to police, Beijing News reported Tuesday.

On Monday, authorities at the museum, also known as the Forbidden City, said they reported the incident immediately after discovering the shoot. It is currently under investigation.

Pictures showing a naked woman leaning on a white marble handrail and sitting on the head of a marble dragon went viral and drew heated debate on the Internet last month.

The photos were first posted on microblog Sina Weibo by photographer Wang Dong on May 17.

Under China's public security administration punishments law, people who molest others or purposefully appear naked in public shall face five to ten days in police custody.

Whether the nude photo shoot is subject to such punishment will be decided by the police, the authorities said.

The photographer has insisted the shoot was an act of artistic creation that did not interfere with others.

The Palace Museum has did respond to the incident until early June, criticizing the photo shoot as disrespectful to the former imperial palace.

In an earlier report, the museum said that it had not been informed about the shoot in advance, but confirmed that on the morning of May 17 four people involved in an "improper" photo shoot in front of the "Taihe" (the Hall of Supreme Harmony) were told to stop by Forbidden City employees.

The shoot harmed public order, social morality and the cultural atmosphere of the museum, as well as "profaned the dignity of the cultural relics", the statement read.

Such behavior should be criticized by all of society, it added.

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