Museums in Vienna create OnlyFans account to display ”explicit” artworks due to social media censorship

The censorship guidelines on social media that censored nude artworks prompted museums in Vienna along with the Vienna Tourism Board to create an OnlyFans account for the “Vienna Laid Bare” initiative. The move is also seen as a protest against such censorship. 

On the adult-only platform, the museums post some of the city's historical suggestive artworks, including pieces depicting nude or partially nude people by Egon Schiele and Amedeo Modigliani. 

The Vienna Tourism Board said the museums and their artworks “are among the casualties of this new wave of prudishness” with nude statues and famous artworks blacklisted under social media guidelines. "We question this kind of censorship, because we believe it's not a good idea to let an algorithm determine our cultural legacy," Vienna Tourism Board spokesperson Helen Hartlauer told NPR.

According to her, they have posted images of artworks featured in the “Vienna Laid Bare” initiative on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok for promotional purposes, but they were removed and some of the museums’ accounts that posted the images were closed. 

In July, the Albertina Museum’s TikTok account was suspended after posting the showing work of Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki that showed an obscured female breast. Back in 2018, the photograph of the 25,000-year-old Venus of Willendorf figurine in the Vienna Museum of Natural History’s page was removed from Facebook because it was deemed pornographic. 

“This marketing initiative of ours is not the ultimate solution for this problematic relationship between the art world and social media, but … we want to stand up for our values and our beliefs,” Hartlauer said. “Vienna has always been famous for being open-minded.”

Those who subscribe to “Vienna’s 18+ content” on OnlyFans by 31 October will receive either a Vienna City Card or an admission ticket to see one of the artworks in person.