Gallery puts ‘offensive’ nymphs back on display

Return: Hylas And The Nymphs A GALLERY accused of censorship after removing a Victorian masterpiece for supposedly being offensive to women has performed a U-turn.

Manchester Art Gallery restored Hylas And The Nymphs by JW Waterhouse to pride of place over the weekend.

The pre-Raphaelite work shows naked nymphs luring Argonaut warrior Hylas to a watery death during the search for the golden fleece.

It had been claimed that the 1896 painting perpetuated ‘outdated and damaging stories’ that ‘women are either femmes fatale or passive bodies for male consumption’.

Visitors found in its usual place a message that it had been removed ‘to prompt conversations about how we display and interpret artworks’.

One art- lover called the move ‘feminism gone mad’ while others said the ‘Snowflake generation’ were rewriting Britain’s cultural history.

The gallery’s interim director Amanda Wallace said: ‘Throughout the painting’s seven-day absence, it’s been clear that many people feel very strongly about the issues raised, and we now plan to harness this strength of feeling for some further debate on these wider issues.’