Madrid Museum to Combine Condoms and Art

Published: October 5, 2009

Photo by StephYo, courtesy Flickr

Madrid's Thyssen-Bornemisza museum

Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini Sir Peter Paul Rubens Auguste Rodin Richard Avedon Sir John Everett Millais Sam Taylor-Wood Season Opens Softly at Christie’s New York Sales Preview

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MADRID— A Madrid museum will display a connection between sex and art not only in an exhibition but also in its gift shop, where it plans to sell condoms in packets especially decorated with works to be featured in the “Tears of Eros” show that opens later this month.

Although not finalized yet, the campaign expects to decorate the condom packets with, among others, David Beckham, appearing in the exhibition as the star of a Sam Taylor-Wood video that shows him sleeping, and actress Nastassja Kinski, whose portrait by Richard Avedon will also be in the show. Works by Rodin, Rubens, Millais, and Bernini may also be displayed on the condom packets, the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum says.

“Tears of Eros” will be presented jointly by the museum and the Caja Madrid Foundation, which will show Taylor-Wood's video and other contemporary artwork. The 119 works are said to deal with “the close relationship between sexual desire and the death instinct,” among other topics.

Read more at the London Guardian.

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