Deborah De Robertis Arrested in France for Nude Museum Performances

Luxembourgish-Italian artist Deborah De Robertis, 32, was arrested and fined €2,000 in France for staging two unauthorized nude performances in Paris museums. The first occurred in March at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie during a Bettina Rheims exhibition, where she wore a red jacket exposing her breasts and sprayed herself with ketchup. The second took place at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in a Barbie-themed show, where she wore a blonde wig, marine hat, and white costume revealing her chest and a fake beard on her pubic area. Despite the arrest, she repeated the action. A third performance was thwarted at a Nobuyoshi Araki retrospective. De Robertis claims her body represents the social body reproducing an action. Her trial is set for February 1. A similar case involves Swiss artist Milo Moiré, arrested in London in June for her performance "Mirror Box," where she allowed passersby to touch her genitals through a mirrored box to protest women's freedom over their bodies. The question of whether these acts constitute art remains debated.