Museum of Eroticism
Encyclopedia
Sex museum
A sex museum is a museum that displays erotic art, historical sexual aids, and documents on the history of erotica. They were popular in Europe at the end of the 1960s and during the 1970s, the era of the sexual revolution....
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
devoted to the erotic art
Erotic art
Erotic art covers any artistic work that is intended to evoke erotic arousal or that depicts scenes of love-making. It includes paintings, engravings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, music and writing.-Definition:...
collections of antique dealer Alain Plumey and French teacher Jo Khalifa. Founded in 1997, the museum is situated in the Pigalle district of Paris, at 72 Boulevard de Clichy
Boulevard de Clichy
The Boulevard de Clichy , which lends its name to the Place de Clichy, resulted from the fusion, in 1864, of the roads that paralleled the Wall of the Farmers-General, both inside and out. It extends from the Place de Clichy to the Rue des Martyrs, nearly a kilometre away...
. The collection ranges from the ancient religious art of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
right up to contemporary art
Contemporary art
Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...
with an erotic focus. There are five floors, including a basement exhibition. One floor is devoted to maisons closes
Prostitution in France
Prostitution in France is not illegal, but several surrounding activities are. These include soliciting, procuring, operating a brothel , living off the avails, and paying for sex with someone under the age of 18.During the Napoleonic era France became the model for the regulatory...
, the legal brothels of the 19th and early 20th century. The film Polisson et galipettes
The Good Old Naughty Days
The Good Old Naughty Days , released in 2002, is a compilation from over 300 recently discovered film clips from silent hardcore pornographic films made between 1905 and 1930, re-edited by director Michel Reilhac, with a new soundtrack by Eric Le Guen...
is shown; it is a collection of pornographic shorts formerly exhibited in the maisons closes. The upper two floors have revolving exhibitions, mainly of contemporary artists. It is visited by the main character in the novel Merde Actually, the sequel to A Year in the Merde
A Year in the Merde
A Year in the Merde is a comic novel by Stephen Clarke first published in 2004 under the pen name Paul West. In later editions, the author's real identity was revealed...
.