monarchy even proposed the
destruction of objects, fearful of the implications of their ownership, which
would tarnish the monarchy with lasciviousness. The then director of the Royal
Bourbon Museum instead had access to the collection terminated, and the
entrance door was provided with three different locks, whose keys were held
respectively by the Director of the Museum, the Museum Controller, and the
Palace Butler. The highlight of the censorship occurred in 1851 when even nude
Venus statues were locked up, and the entrance walled up in the hope that the
collection would vanish from memory.

Censorship persisted in the following years, abating only after 1971 when the Ministry was
given the new rules to regulate requests for visits and access to the section.
Completely rebuilt a few years ago with all of the new criteria, the collection
was finally openedto the public in April 2000. Nowadays visitors under the age of 14
can tour the exhibit only with an adult.

Although rather titillating and humorous the artifacts were to numerous and in most cases behind glass panels - so I haven't included any images here ...

The
museum's Mosaic Collection includes a number of important mosaics recovered
from the ruins of Pompeii and the other Vesuvian cities. This includes the
Alexander Mosaic, dating from circa 100 BC, originally from the House of the
Faun in Pompeii. It depicts a battle between the armies of Alexander the Great
and Darius III of Persia.

So much beautiful marble - and I have shown you only a fraction ... and to think that most was sculptured over 2000 years past and lay buried under volcanic ash from Vesuvius for