Brithish museum: an invitation to porndal direttore Ferruccio Gard
London’s British Museum, the largest museum in the world, has a secret room that is usually closed to the public and clearly demonstrates that the fascination with obscenity and pornography has ancient origins. The museum’s collection - over 8 million objects covering 807,000 sq feet – includes items that, even though shocking to conservative minds, may, after all, be put on display… However, most people tour the British Museum quickly and miss these items. So, here’s an idea to attract new visitors: an over- 18s only hunt to find the museum’s naughtiest treasures (the same strategy was used in Paris two years ago). That’s how an external company organizing treasure hunts at the British Museum (“THATMuse”) promotes, um, boldly innovative tours. Participants must seek out erotic or pornographic details, from beautiful Venuses and impish Putti to the enormous erect phallus of Priapus (this one’s easy peasy); from extremely explicit Roman artefacts and erotic 5th century Greek vases, to other naughty items that the hasty visitor may miss. For example: did you know that even ancient Egyptians were not averse to a bit of erotica? The visitors-turned-porn-detectives are invited to photograph and then give a description of the artefacts, with the ‘commendable’ aim of learning in a different way about one of the least explored aspects of art history. Organizers are enthusiastic about this exciting (pun intended) treasure hunt, which allows participants to discover cultures and themes from “a different point of view”. Likewise, visitors seem pretty satisfied. But of course, an Italian commented that “only a pr**k could like this….”, with language fitting the situation. And the reference was not inappropriate: he was standing in front of the statue of Priapus…