WARSAW, March 22, 2006 - Polish education inspectors have banned a CD with a painting by Hieronymus Bosch reproduced on its cover from being distributed in schools, saying the picture, entitled Hell, could harm young people.

"There are pornographic scenes in the Bosch picture that can damage people. I couldn't give this to young people," said a school inspector in the northern town of Bydgoszcz, quoted by the Gazeta Wyborcza daily yesterday.

Inspectors in at least four other regions have also stopped distribution of the disk bearing Bosch's famous picture.

The education ministry had planned to present students who performed best in Polish high-school leaving exams with a disk by rock group Normalsi. On the cover is Bosch's painting, showing nude figures being tortured with musical instruments.

Bosch, who lived from 1450 to 1516, was a Dutch religious painter who used images of demons and semi-human creatures to depict sin and moral failings.

The aim of handing the disk to students was to interest them in the Bible.

Copyright 2006 Agence-France Presse