Secret Museum, Naples

Although the excavation of Pompeii was initially an Enlightenment project, once artifacts were classified through a new method of taxonomy, those deemed obscene and unsuitable for the general public were termed pornography and in 1821[1] they were locked away in a Secret Museum.

[2] Throughout ancient Pompeii and Herculaneum, erotic frescoes, depictions of the god Priapus, sexually explicit symbols and inscriptions, and household items such as phallic oil lamps were found.

[3] At Pompeii, locked metal cabinets were constructed over erotic frescos, which could be shown, for an additional fee, to gentlemen but not to ladies.

[4] The cabinet was only accessible to "people of mature age and respected morals", which in practice meant only educated men.

The catalogue of the secret museum was also a form of censorship, as engravings and descriptive texts played down the content of the room.