The move is a protest against social media platforms blocking artworks, the city’s tourism board says
Vienna’s tourism board is launching an OnlyFans account, taking to the adult content platform in protest against what it claims is censorship of artworks across many social media platforms including Instagram and Facebook. The new initiative will see the city’s Albertina Museum, Leopold Museum, Natural History Museum and Kunsthistorisches Museum.
Viennese museums have faced restrictions on social media in recent years – earlier this year, the Albertina Museum’s TikTok account was blocked after displaying images by Nobuyoshi Araki showing a partially-covered breast; meanwhile the Leopold Museum has also run into trouble with works by Egon Schiele – rejected by both Facebook and public advertising in the UK. In 2018, even the Natural History Museum’s photograph of the Paleolithic Venus of Willendorf statuette was censored on Facebook.
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The first subscribers to the new OnlyFans account, where they will be able to view work including pieces by Egon Schiele, VALIE EXPORT, Amedeo Modigliani, Peter Paul Rubens, the Venus of Willendorf and others, will receive a Vienna City Card or a gallery ticket. Vienna tourist board director Norbert Kettner said: ‘In social media, algorithms determine how much nudity may be shown and often censor world-famous works of art. We question how much nudity we can tolerate and who can determine what we find offensive. In the cultural metropolis of Vienna, the question can be answered: nude art is socio-political and artistic part of cultural history.’
