Vienna museums launch OnlyFans account to display ‘explicit’ artwork

(CNN) – The city of Vienna is taking an unconventional approach to art censorship and has turned to the adult online platform OnlyFans to showcase its more “explicit” works of art.

The Austrian capital’s tourist office is now presenting art from four of Vienna’s most revered museums on the adults-only platform in response to the blocking of some art content containing nudity on social media.

Some of Austria’s museums, including the Albertina Museum and the Leopold Museum, have recently had trouble posting their artwork on social accounts, leading to censorship of some art pieces that include nudity.

In July, the Albertina Museum’s TikTok account was suspended, and later blocked, for displaying works by Japanese artist and photographer Nobuyoshi Araki that showed a partially darkened chest.

In 2019, Instagram said that a painting by legendary Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens violated its community guidelines. Earlier this year, when the Leopold Museum celebrated its 20th anniversary, a video uploaded to Facebook and Instagram containing work by Koloman Moser was rejected because the platforms marked it as “potentially pornographic.”

Now, these works and more of Vienna’s “18+ content” can be found in full screen and without filters on OnlyFans, a subscription-based website best known as a platform for sharing and viewing pornographic content.

The capital’s tourism board said Vienna is home to “some of the world’s most famous artists. […] whose works crossed the limits of what was considered acceptable in the art and society of the time, […] It is not surprising to learn that some of his works of art fell out of favor with the censors more than 100 years ago. “

“And the battle against censorship still rages on: With the rise of social media, bans like these are making headlines once again. Major social media channels like Instagram and Facebook are firmly targeting nudity and sex. ‘lewd’ content “.

The tourism board also said that “Vienna and its arts institutions are among the victims of this new wave of prudery,” and stated that this is why it decided to put “the capital’s world-famous ‘explicit’ works of art on OnlyFans. “.

The Vienna tourism board also addressed the uncensored nature of OnlyFans, saying the platform “shook up social media by providing creators with a platform where they could freely share nude and pornographic content with subscribers.”

All account subscribers will receive a free Vienna city card or free ticket to any of the prominent museums where the tourism board has said that “the works of art in question can be seen in the flesh without censorship” .

OnlyFans faced censorship-related issues in August this year when it banned “sexually explicit content” – a decision that was greeted with such backlash that it was reversed within days of its announcement.