It’s Rubens vs. Facebook over artistic nudity

Belgian museums are uniting against Facebook for fear of the social media site’s adult content rule

Brussels: For four centuries, the opulent, exuberant nudes of Peter Paul Rubens have been known to shock and delight in sometimes equal measure. And now, even in 2018, his Baroque paintings are still jolting the internet.

Belgian museums are uniting in protest against Facebook since they cannot promote Flemish Masters including Rubens at will for fear of falling foul of the social media site’s adult content rules and automatic censorship. “The bare breasts and buttocks painted by our artist are considered by you to be inappropriate. We have noticed that Facebook consistently rejects works of art by our beloved Peter Paul Rubens," over a dozen top Belgian art officials wrote to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The Visit Flanders tourist board even produced a mock news video where security officials prevent visitors from seeing nudity in the Rubens House museum. In it, one even spreads his arms in front of the Adam & Eve painting, where the biblical figures are covered only by the proverbial fig leaf. Instead they divert them to other paintings where everyone is properly dressed. Point made, they hope.

“Twenty percent of the ( Facebook) posts that we dedicated to the Flemish Masters couldn't be shown to our audience, our cultural audience worldwide,” said spokeswoman Tama d'Haen of Visit Flanders. “It’s really embarrassing that we cannot show one of our main assets to the world, said Tama.