Sex museum

New York City's Museum of Sex

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. Since the 1990s, these museums are often called erotic museums or erotic art museums instead of sex museums.

Notable sex museums

America

• The first sex museum was opened in San Francisco by Ted McIlvenna in the 1970's and is now closed.^{[citation needed]}
• The Museum of Sex in New York City opened in 2002.^[1]
• The Hollywood Erotic Museum in Hollywood opened in January 2004. (This museum is currently closed and now contains a Frederick's of Hollywood retail shop.^[2]
• The World Erotic Art Museum in Miami Beach opened on 16 October 2005.^[3]
• The Erotic Heritage Museum in Las Vegas opened on August 3, 2008.^[4]

Europe

• The Musée de l'Érotisme in Paris opened in 1998.^[5]
• There is a small sex museum in the heart of the Amsterdam red light district, de Wallen, and a second larger and more upscale one (Venus Temple) nearby, on the Damrak. Venus Temple is the oldest still operating sex museum; it opened in 1985. The Venus Temple was reviewed in a video podcast called The Lowdown on NunoXEI.com.
• The Erotic Art Museum near the Reeperbahn in Hamburg opened in 1992.^[6]
• The Beate Uhse Erotic Museum in Berlin opened in 1996. It claims to be "the world's largest erotic museum".^[7]
• The Museum Erotica in Copenhagen opened in 1993.^[8]
• The Museo de la Erotica in Barcelona opened in 1996.^[9]
• The first Russian sex museum opened in 2004 in Saint Petersburg; it claims to exhibit the preserved penis of Rasputin.^[10]
• While not itself a sex museum, the National Archaeological Museum in Naples opened its extensive collection of historic erotic art in its Secret Cabinet to the public in 2000. Most of the exhibits are from Greek and Roman times, and many were recovered from nearby Pompeii.^[11]
• The Museo d'Arte Erotica, devoted to the erotic history of Venice and showing historical and contemporary erotic art opened in Venice, Italy in February 2006.^[12]
• Amora the London Academy of Sex and Relationships opened in London in 2007. Rather than emphasizing erotica and pornography, it focuses on educational exhibits on topics such as orgasms, sexual chemistry and sexual dysfunction.^{[13] [14]}
• The Secretum or Cupboard 55, containing erotic objects at the British Museum, London.
• The Sex Machines Museum in Prague, Czech Republic, contains "an exposition of mechanical erotic appliances, the purpose of which is to bring pleasure and allow extraordinary and unusual positions during intercourse." On display in the museum are "more than 200 objects and mechanical appliances on view, a gallery of art with erotic themes, a cinema with old erotic films, erotic clothing and many other things pertaining to human sexuality."^[15]
• First erotic museum in Lithuania opened in Kaunas, July 13, 2009.

Asia

• The first sex museum in China opened in 1999 in the center of Shanghai; in 2001 it moved to the outskirts of the city. It was variously called "Museum of Ancient Chinese Sex Culture" or "Dalin Cultural Exhibition" after its founder, sexologist Dr. Liu Dalin. In early 2004 it moved again, to Tong Li, and is now known as the China Sex Museum, with over three thousand erotic artifacts.^[16][17]
• India's first sex museum opened in Mumbai (Bombay) in 2002.^[18]
• South Korea's first sex museum, Asia Eros Museum, opened in the Insadong neighborhood in Seoul in 2003. The museum has since closed.^[19]
• Love Land park in South Korea
• The small National Museum of Erotica in Canberra opened in 2001 and closed in 2003.
• In Japan, there are many sex museums called "Hihokan (House of Hidden Treasures)" everywhere across the country. They are located in amusement centers in popular sightseeing spots or spa resorts, and ran by individuals, not by organizations. They date back to the 1960s–70s; more recently such type of amusement resorts for elder men have declined, and many personal sex museums closed in the 1990s.^{[20][21][22][23][24]}

Online

• The Venusberg Erotic Art-Museum is a virtual Erotic-Museum, founded 1997 by a German collector and run as a paysite.
• The private DMK Erotic Art Museum is based on the collection Roger Peyrefitte, Paris and founded 1982 by the German art collector D. M. Klinger. It is not open to the public and virtual access will start 2006. [1]

References

The Weekly "Ms. Open Mind: Interview of Dr. Laura Henkel http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2008/sep/18/curator-erotic/

944 Magazine "Sex Ed" http://www.944.com/articles/sex-ed/

Henkel Enterprises LLC, http://henkelenterprises.com/images//China_Speech2.pdf

Las Vegas Review Journal, Embracing Erotic Art http://www.lvrj.com/news/25958069.html

The New Erotic Heritage Museum in Las Vegas http://living-las-vegas.com/2008/08/erotic-museum-las-vegas/

Megan Edwards The New Erotic Heritage Museum in Las Vegas http://meganedwards.com/2008/08/the-new-erotic-heritage-museum-in-las-vegas/

External links

• The Era of Sex Museums, by Marianna Beck and Jack Hafferkamp, in Libido, the Journal of Sex and Sensibility, vol 10(3), Fall 1998. A survey and review of various sex museums.
• Examiner.com: Europe's Best Sex Museums