Vienna's naked men

Vienna is getting all excited about naked men since a larger-than-life statue of a naked man was unveiled outside the city’s Leopold Museum in early October as part of an exhibition called nude men from 1800-to the present day.

At the same time advertising posters for the exhibition began appearing around the city of three naked footballers.  However the full frontal photos of the three burley sportsmen – one black, one brown and one white, in only their football socks and boots – has sparked protest around the city.

The photo, which is in the exhibition, is called Vive La France and was taken in 2006 by Pierre and Giles to illustrate French multicultural society. The Leopold Museum has now stopped using the photo to promote its exhibition because of the protests.

However the large statue outside the museum by Ilse Haider is still in place. The exhibition opens on 19 October and runs until 28 January and will display 300 works by about 100 artists, some of them even more explicit than the posters.