Case · Censorship

Deborah De Robertis's Museum Interventions

The body, the masterpiece, and the limits of the gaze

Image: courtesy / press

Deborah De Robertis stages unauthorised performances before canonical artworks — Courbet's 'Origin of the World', the Mona Lisa — exposing her body to reflect the museum's gaze back on itself, and drawing repeated police complaints.

By positioning her own body in front of the very artworks that have long depicted and displayed the female form, De Robertis forces a confrontation: what may be shown on a canvas is celebrated, while the living equivalent is escorted out and charged.

Her interventions at the Musée d'Orsay and the Louvre have led to arrests and accusations of sexual exhibitionism, some contested in court. The work sits squarely in COA's territory of censorship and the artist's legal jeopardy — the museum not as sanctuary but as site of control.

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