She performed nude in front of the Mona Lisa: Paris court acquits her

She had denuded herself at the Louvre, in front of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, last Sept. 24, repeating a “performance” she had already conducted in April: this time, however, the doors of the Court had opened for 33-year-old Luxembourg-based artist and performer Deborah de Robertis. The charge she had to answer to was that of “exhibition sexuelle” (“sexual exhibition”), a kind of counterpart to our obscene acts in a public place.

However, the judges of the Paris court decided to acquit the artist, who defended herself by asserting that her performance entitled Ma chatte, mon copyright (the term “chatte,” literally “cat,” indicates the female genital organ in French) was a “militant and artistic act” and not a sexual exhibition. The judges noted “the absence of exposure of genital organs,” since the artist would be limited to showing only “pubic hair.” In addition, the court ruled that the act had no sexual connotations.

Reached by artnews, Deborah de Robertis explained that “the court cannot decide what is art and what is not, but it ruled that my work could not constitute the crime of sexual exhibition because of its political, militant and artistic dimension. I showed the woman’s genital organ as it is, with its hair and au natural, and my nudity is not sexual because it has artistic nudes as its reference.”

She performed nude in front of the Mona Lisa: Paris court acquits her

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