>A genuine request here!  I'm trying to track any museum which is
>dedicated to sex, has signficant collections on the subject, or which
>has mounted an exhibition in recent times on any of the plethora of
>related topics. (Adrienne Leith, Curator, Human Mind and Body Program)

An inventory of "any museum" will depend on a definition of "sex". Many
natural history museums discuss reproduction, often in a rather detached
technical way. At the other side of the spectre are museums of erotic art.
Where natural history meets antropology interesting exhibitions might arise,
such as in the Musee de l'Homme (Paris) where a very interesting exhibition
on marriage, birth, population dynamics and birth control is on show at the
moment. Do you consider an exhibition on homosexuality as related? The
Amsterdam Historical Museum made an interesting exhibition about
homosexuality and the homo scene in Amsterdam some years ago. The Gay
community in Amsterdam never succeeded in creating its own museum as in
Berlin ("Schwule Museum"). Do you consider an exhibition on the (nude) human
body in art as related? The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam recently made a (small)
exhibition of prints and drawings exploring this topic.

Unlike Patrick Boylan, I did visit the Sexmuseum, Amsterdam (although it
looks English, its name is proper Dutch !). In fact, there are two similar
museums. Apart from the Sexmuseum there is also the Erotisch Museum (Erotic
Museum), which I did not visit yet. Like the Museum of Torture, the Tattoo
Museum and the Hash & Marihuana Museum, the Sexmuseum and Erotisch Museum
are private museums and "thoroughly commercial". As such, they are not
accepted as member of the Netherlands Museums Association. These museums are
very object oriented. The Sexmuseum shows a wide range of artefacts such as
(pre)historic images of all sorts of sexual activities (including sex with
animals), dildo's from different times and cultures, chastity belts, SM
attributes, erotic clothing, etc. As far as I remember (it was a long time
ago) the only topic that was avoided was sex with children. Anyway, the
presentation was entertaining but not very educational (but, what is our
definition of education? There is a lot to learn in this museum ...).
Similar sex museums can be found in Copenhagen and Berlin.

I am very interested in your ethics paper!

Peter van Mensch
senior lecturere of theoretical museology and museum ethics
course director Master's Degree Programme
Reinwardt Academie
Amsterdam