PARIS - Over the last few weeks, the most popular cultural ticket in this city has been a museum exhibition that confronts viewers with images of a nude man on a cold morgue slab and the rapper Eminem, staring down from the walls of the Musee d'Orsay, naked and brandishing a firecracker in front of his crotch.

The exhibition of male nudes, "Masculin/Masculin," is also part of the daily commute in Paris Metro stations, where life-size posters promoting the show picture the Roman god Mercury - nude, muscular, with a wing-tipped helmet - accompanied by the shepherd Paris, also naked save for an artfully draped gold ribbon.

And the crowds are coming, averaging more than 4,500 people a day, triple the amount for a show at the same time last year, according to museum figures.

The exhibition - which includes works by Picasso and Edvard Munch as well as more contemporary nudes by David Hockney, Andy Warhol and Robert Mapplethorpe - has provoked a wide range of responses inside and outside France.

"A confused show" the French daily newspaper Le Monde weighed in, "devoid of any historical reflection." Marie Claire, a women's beauty magazine, anointed it the "hottest event" of autumn.

And sizzle is what a number of major European institutions seek this fall, hoping that a focus on sex will entice visitors and broaden their appeal.

The Musee Jacquemart-Andre is also teasing Paris train commuters with posters of a dewy female nude labeled "desire." It is holding an exhibition of British paintings called, "Desire and Pleasure in Victorian Times."

Across the channel, the British Museum organized a first-of-its-kind exhibition of once-banned 17th-century Japanese shunga, erotic woodblock prints of men and women coupling, or, in one image, an octopus wrapped around a fisherman's ecstatic wife. The show, "Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art," warns visitors: "parental guidance advised."

For years, the objects were hidden in a secret cabinet of provocative objects, but now the British Museum considers it so profitable that it created a line of shunga merchandise: Kabuki hand cream, soy candles and green-tea lip gloss. Shows there were sold out during the first weekend in October.

The Musee d'Orsay, like other cultural institutions with shrinking state subsidies, wanted to expand its base to younger people and visitors beyond Paris with riskier shows.The museum hired a director to create video trailers.

Though France has a long history of a liberal attitude toward sex and nudity, museum officials were also conscious of potential criticism. Earlier this year, antigay marriage protests spread across the city, and the demonstrations laid bare a simmering social conservatism that startled many.

"This is an exhibition that cannot be separated from the debate in the streets of France right now," said Amelie Hardivillier, Musee d'Orsay spokeswoman. "But it shows a museum that reflects the society of today, and that's really the concept."

The Musee d'Orsay was surprised that its promotional video for the exhibition was taboo for some viewers thousands of kilometers away. YouTube slapped the equivalent of an X rating on it, and viewers under 18 who signed in with their Google accounts could not access it. Gareth Evans, spokesman for YouTube, wrote by email: "We have to perform a delicate balancing act to younger viewers are unable to access videos that might be unsuitable."

Eventually, YouTube softened its stance, making the video, which has attracted almost 110,000 views, accessible for everyone. (It comes with a warning about potentially offensive images.)

As for the show itself, "Our aim is not to provoke, to be militant or to create a scandal," said Ms. Hardivillier. "We have to look for people in different ways, and we started with 'Masculin/Masculin.' It's an exhibit that is risky."

The New York Times

(China Daily 11/03/2013 page12)