The World Erotic Art Museum in Miami is one of the few sex museums still in operation. Unlike other museums of eroticism around the world, it is not just a cabinet of curiosities designed to lure in the punters.
There is, of course, a fine collection of erotic folk art. But the museum also displays many works by famous artists, including works by Rembrandt, Picasso, Dalí and Botero, as well as photographs by Robert Maplethorpe, Helmut Newton and Bunny Yeager.
Tribal and ancient art also features prominently. Visitors can admire statuettes depicting sexual acts and various phallic objects from a range of places. Pre-Columbian sexual depictions sit alongside Tibetan sculptures, Asian erotic prints, Native American art, African phallic ritual masks and Indian statues.
One section of the World Erotic Art Museum is devoted to the myth of Leda and the swan. Zeus took the form of a swan to seduce Leda, the wife of Tyndareus, king of Sparta. Two children were born of this union: Helen and Pollux, who hatched from an egg. Two other twins, Castor and Clytemnestra, Tyndareus’s children, hatched from a second egg. Many works of art are inspired by this legend.
Another section is devoted to the art of concealing erotic depictions in objects that look innocuous.
The museum also explores gay culture and its depictions, as well as eroticism in surrealist art and cheeky humour.
The World Erotic Art Museum in photos
Thanks to the photos taken by its visitors, we can set off together on a virtual tour of the World Erotic Art Museum.
Sources: Bill Taroli’s and osseous’s Flickr galleries, Creative Commons
See also: the museum’s official website.
