The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is claiming a victory for art lovers everywhere after Facebook agreed to review its policy on ads containing nudity following its rejection of a painting by Pablo Picasso.
In May, the museum attempted to include an image of Picasso鈥檚 1956 painting Femmes a la Toillete, which features two naked women, in an ad for an ongoing exhibit that was submitted to Facebook for approval. The ad was rejected in what appeared to be an automated response from the social media site.
The museum tried replacing the painting in the ad with two other paintings from the Picasso exhibit, but they were also rejected because they contained nudity according to Facebook.
Pascale Chasse, a museum spokesperson, said the museum set up a conference call with a Facebook Canada employee to discuss the ads following the third rejection.
鈥淭his is fine art,鈥� she told CTV Montreal on Thursday. 鈥淭hey look at it as it was like a bad ad about sexuality or nudity with bad taste. They don鈥檛 know the difference between that and an art of work.鈥�
Chasse said Facebook told them they would create a specific regulation for fine art in advertisements on the site.
鈥淧robably now they realize they can鈥檛 look at fine art the same way that they look at the regular ads,鈥� she said.
A Facebook spokesperson said the company is currently reviewing its advertising policies.
鈥淲e want to make sure that museums and other institutions are able to share some of their most iconic paintings and are currently reviewing our approach to nudity in paintings in ads on Facebook,鈥� the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
The museum鈥檚 exhibit titled From Africa to the Americas: Face-to-Face Picasso, Past and Present is on now until Sept. 16.
With files from CTV Montreal
