A woman was arrested in France after stripping and posing nude in a museum mimicking the painting by French artist Edouard Manet called Olympia. The detainee was known as Luxembourg artist, Deborah de Robertis, who claimed her actions were part of her performance art and should not have been discriminated against.
Reportedly, De Robertis stripped down her clothes next to the painting of Manet, laid naked right in front of it and replicated the figure in the art work. There were a number of museum-goers in Paris's Musée d'Orsay admiring the works when De Robertis undressed. Security intervened immediately and Deborah was then arrested on Jan. 17.
The defendant in response found the judicial decision unfair and is done in hypocrisy. Her lawyer Tewfik Bouzenoune stated that Deborah did nothing wrong and simply displayed an artistic performance. To prove the point, the Luxembourg artist was wearing a portable camera to film the public's reaction. This was also in part of an exhibition titled Splendour And Misery: Images Of Prostitution 1850-1910, The Guardian reports.
"Putting an artist in custody sends a very bad message," said Bouzenoune, criticising the judicial ruling.
While France has been known to have a more liberal view on sex and nudity, it seem that modern times call for debates to sex related art. To which De Robertis also had a comment to share.
"They like nudity in art, they just don't want it to be moving. I don't understand how you can have this kind of exhibition if you are not prepared to go to examine nudity in the real world."
Reportedly, this is not the first controversial exhibitions by the artist. Back in May 2014, De Robertis had also chosen Musée d'Orsay where she sat down and spread her legs exposing her vulva to mimicking Gustave Courbet's Origin of the World that depicts the female genitalia.
