Now here is something you wouldn’t expect to see in Warsaw. Though it translates as the Museum of Eroticism we feel that the owner has done himself a disservice by giving it such an emotive name. If like us (and parts of the local media) you were expecting a Berlin/Amsterdam style museum of eroticism you are likely to be disappointed. No shady corners, private dimly lit rooms or outsized sex toys here. Instead what the owner (for the collection is private and the museum privately funded) should have named the place is the Museum of Erotic Art. Because although much of the collection will leave little to the imagination, and for that reason carries a minimum age of 18 to enter, it is also unquestionably art. Set over a series of rooms on the first floor of one of the modern buildings close to the Radisson hotel, the collection covers erotic art of primarily Asian origin that reflects the far more open attitude to sex in that part of the world.

Where the exhibition excels is in the diversity and age of much of the art: this might be glorified porn, but it’s centuries old porn in many cases, and there’s much here of historical import. Most erotic works of Chinese art, for example, were destroyed during Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution, and those on show here are amongst the few surviving examples. Then there is erotic art from Latin America, which survived the iconoclasm of the conquistadors. There are also charms with a sexual theme which were carried by Roman Legionnaires and little boxes designed to carry a ‘preservative’ in from the first half of the 20th century. (A little bit of trivia here: The inventor of the modern seamless latex condom was a man by the name of Julius Fromm who was born in Konin, Poland. He patented the idea in 1916). There are brothel tokens from the US, posters produced by the Allied armies in WWI to warn against STDs and elaborately be-penised utensils such as teapots, cups and plates. There is also an exhibition devoted to local Polish erotic curiosities, from a 1915 condom vending machine to a notice advising prostitutes on how to identify if a client has an STD.

An English language guidebook is allegedly in the pipeline to help explain the titillating art in a bit more detail, though the longer descriptions are all posted in English (we were especially fascinated/horrified by the sexual impetus behind China’s tradition of foot binding). All in all, it’s a fascinating look at erotic art and morality through the ages. If there is a theme it is that pornography or erotic art - where the line between the two actually is could make for an interesting post-visit discussion - is so very ordinary and that there is nothing new in anything we see today. Unfortunately, the museum closed at the beginning of 2012 as they search for a new location and more funds to keep the museum afloat. 

Admission 30/25zł. Visitors must be over 18.