The Louvre Is Suing Pornhub Over Its Erotic Museum Tour

Last week Pornhub announced it would be offering tours of some of the best porn in the world, which, according to the company’s new “Classic Nudes” initiative, can be found in the form of erotic artworks on display throughout museums worldwide. Unfortunately, at least two of the museums on Pornhub’s interactive tour are not fans of said tour, and are now reportedly suing.

The project invites post-pandemic museum goers to join Pornhub on an erotic tour highlighting nude paintings and other erotic works of art displayed in notable museums throughout the globe, including The MET, Prado, U.S. National Gallery, Louvre and the Uffizi Gallery — the latter two of which are suing Pornhub, according to various reports.

“There’s a treasure trove of erotic art around the world — depicting nudes, orgies, and more — that’s not available on Pornhub. These pre-Internet art pieces are currently sitting in museums, which we are now finally able to start visiting again as Covid restrictions are starting to lift,” Pornhub brand ambassador Asa Akira said in a press release announcing the project earlier this month. “So as people start to head back to The Louvre or The MET, they can simply open Classic Nudes, and I’ll be their guide. Time to ditch those boring self-tour recordings and enjoy every single brushstroke of these erotic masterpieces with me.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the keepers of the masterpieces Pornhub has essentially labeled as a treasure trove of art-historical pornography aren’t thrilled by the new project.

“No one has granted authorizations for the operation or use of the art,” said a spokesperson for the Uffizi in Florence. “In Italy, the cultural heritage code provides that in order to use images of a museum, compressed works for commercial purposes, it is necessary to have the permission, which regulates the methods and sets the relative fee to be paid. All this obviously if the museum grants the authorization which, for example, would hardly have been issued in this case.”

The Louvre, meanwhile, kept its statement on the matter and short and not so sweet: “Pornhub has heard from our lawyers. We expect the works to be removed at once.”