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Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates/Secretum (British Museum)/archive1

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Option 1
A nymph and satyr statue once held in the Secretum

The Secretum was a British Museum collection of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that held artefacts and images deemed sexually graphic. Many of the items were from pre-Christian traditions and covered wide ranges of human history and geography. Many of the early artefacts with erotic or sexually graphic images acquired by the museum were not put on public display. Modern scholars believe this segregation was probably motivated by a paternalistic stance from the museum to keep what they considered morally dangerous material away from the public. By the 1860s there were around 700 such items held by the museum. In 1865 the antiquarian George Witt donated his phallocentric collection of 434 artefacts to the museum, which led to the formal setting up of the Secretum. The collection began to be gradually broken up in 1912, with the transfer of items into departments appropriate for their time frame and culture. The last remaining items were moved out of the collection in 2005.


Option 2
A nymph and satyr statue once held in the Secretum

The Secretum (Latin for "hidden away") was a British Museum collection of artefacts and images deemed sexually graphic. These were separated out by museum staff and not put on public display, probably motivated by a paternalistic stance from the museum to keep what they considered morally dangerous material away from all except scholars and members of the clergy. These included amulets, charms and votive offerings, often from pre-Christian traditions, including the worship of Priapus, a Greco-Roman god of fertility and male genitalia. Items from other cultures covered wide ranges of human history, including ancient Egypt, the classical era Greco-Roman world, the ancient Near East, medieval England, Japan and India. The collection was formed in 1865 and began to be gradually broken up in 1912, with the items transferred into departments appropriate for their time frame and culture. The last remaining items were moved out of the Secretum in 2005.


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