Facebook permanently shuts down Maison Bibelot auction house page over photo of ancient statue

Here we go again: yet another case of Facebook censorship of art, and this time with heavy implications. At the expense was the auction house Maison Bibelot (offices in Florence and Milan), which to present one of its auctions published a photograph of a burlesque scene from the 1940s and a photograph by Luigi Ghirri (Scandiano, 1943 - Reggio Emilia, 1992) depicting an ancient statue. However, John T. Moss’s 1941 image and Napoli (this is the title of Ghirri’s photo), taken from his Italian Landscape series and printed in 2006, did not please Facebook’s censors because of the nudity: the social manager of Maison Bibelot thus had an email delivered to her inbox informing her of the irreversible deletion of the page.

“I received feedback from our Internal Team,” reads the text of the email drafted by an employee of Facebook’s Global Marketing Solutions department, “and they informed me that your Page has been disabled due to content related to Nudity and Pornography. I understand how important this Page was to you and your business, however it is not possible to reactivate it as it is a final decision.” This is followed by an invitation to consult the now infamous community standards of Menlo Park’s social.

The closure therefore meant the deletion of all the work Maison Bibelot had been doing on Facebook, forcing it to start over: at this link you can consult the page created immediately after the ban, and perhaps put a like to help the auction house rebuild its base. Maison Bibelot told us that right now it is considering how to proceed in order to regain what was previously made, but it will not be easy, not least because interacting with Facebook is far from a given.

Thus, after censoring great artists of the past (from Mantegna to Rubens, Cagnacci to Caravaggio), as well as of the present (starting with Marina Abramović), Facebook is not sparing the art of antiquity. A few days ago there was the announcement of thelaunch of a discussion table on the issue, but until conclusions are reached, the social will continue with its absurd censorious attitude towards art.

Pictured: the “incriminated” photo of Luigi Ghirri. Luigi Ghirri, Naples, from Italian Landscape (2006; vintage color photographic print chromogenic process, Paola Ghirri’s signature, title, date and 3/10 lower left, printed in 2006 by Paola Ghirri, embossed stamp “LUIGI GHIRRI,” good condition, slight color alteration, 53 x 40 cm)

Facebook permanently shuts down Maison Bibelot auction house page over photo of ancient statue

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