Museum as a temple of eroticism culture as a source of delight the origin and causes of existence of the european museums of erotic art

Abstract

The first museum similar to those we know today, was founded in the late seventeenth century. Half a century later archeologists discovered collections of erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum, lying for centuries under the ashes of Vesuvius, which surprised the scientific Enlightenment enthusiasts with its sensuality. There was a problem, what to do in a museum with exhibits, of undoubted historical value, or artistic, but obscene? The first response was to create secret museums in which objects with erotic connotations would be stored, or even concealed. The need to separate objects that could not be shown to the public from the rest of the collection, led to the modern understanding of the word pornography, which was adopted for the determination of uncomfortable harvest of Vesuvian cities. For the second response we had to wait for over 200 years – sex themed museums. Over the past 25 years, 16 institutions of this kind were created in Europe, out of which 11 continue to operate until today. One of them is located in Warsaw. Another may soon arise in Krakow. All of these are private initiatives, most of them with non-profit intentions, and the primary motivation for their creation was the passion of the founders and their possession of a collection of sexually marked objects, often collected by them over a few decades. The elaboration of this article constitutes the subject-matter of the author’s thesis which he defended in 2010 in the department of culture management at the Jagiellonian University; the thesis was titled Museum of eroticism, eroticism of museum. Historical context, review and analysis of European sex themed museums, which was created under the supervision of Professor Emil Orzechowski Ph.D

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