It's no secret that Facebook is more than a bit priggish when it comes to displaying genitalia, whether on an actual human being or a Baroque marble sculpture. That's right, a 17th century marble penis is still a penis in the eyes of Facebook law.
To explore just how silly Facebook's prim guidelines are, German photographer Peter Kaaden navigated the Louvre -- a space not typically associated with erotic output -- photographing nude sculptures and subsequently Facebook-proofing them.
The resulting series features old school statues letting it all hang out, their faces and private parts kindly blurred out for the innocent Facebook peruser. The images look just as ridiculous as they sound, resembling the strange lovechild of classical high art and "Girls Gone Wild." It's as if the world's most famous statues have all gone on spring break.
Kaaden was inspired to create the series after posting a nude sculpture from the Louvre on social media, which was promptly removed three minutes later. "When I posted this picture I was a little pissed," he explained in an email to The Huffington Post, "because it wasn’t even nudity. It was just a sculpture."
Facebook's censor-happy ways have long baffled and infuriated users of the site, whether removing images of mothers breastfeeding to the Breast Cancer Awareness Body Painting Project.
Censoring the treasures of the world's most prized art museum is just as bizarre. "It's the Louvre," Kaaden told Dazed. "It's the most important place for art in the world. School groups with kids of every age are running around there all day 365 days a year. People from all over the world who are not even interested in art at all are standing in lines for hours to get in there and to see some stone penises and weird devil sculptures who have sex with virgin angels."
See Kaaden's hilarious reaction to excessive censorship below and let us know your thoughts in the comments. And don't you worry, these fine art artifacts are most certainly safe for work!
