British Museum hosts x-rated hunt to find its naughtiest treasures

A company will run Love Hunt at the British Museum
A company will run Love Hunt at the British Museum

The British Museum is to host an x-rated “love hunt”, which will see members of the public seek out the naughtiest items in its collection.

Visitors will be invited to “titter at some semi-pornographic 5th Century Greek pots” and “gawk at the enormous phallus of a Priapus” in an event aimed firmly at adults.

Promising an exploration of the museum’s “naughty and amorous tales”, a specially-designed treasure hunt will see teams of visitors romp through the galleries, set “playful” tasks to take photographs in front of key exhibits.

It is being organised by external company Treasure Hunt At The Museum (THATMuse) and follows similar challenges at the British Museum with different themes.

Attendees are invited to “search for the impish Putti” and “vie to capture the beautiful Venus”, from June 16th onwards.

The Warren Cup
The Warren Cup

While not conceived or run by British Museum staff, the event follows a schools sex and relationship education programme of workshops based on the museum’s objects.

Speaking during a panel event in April, director Hartwig Fischer said the workshops were an example of how museums can help to “mitigate” a perceived lack of arts in state schools.

"They [museums] offer protected spaces and offer schools the possibility for pupils to engage with objects and address difficult subjects," he said then.

"We run a sex and relationship programme that works much better in museums where you have objects that you can relate to and where it is easier to talk about these things.”

Official educational talks use artefacts from Japan, ancient Egypt and Greece to explore pornography and consent, and items from India, ancient Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome to discuss LGBT issues through history. 

The less official Love Hunt will see groups of tourists given a worksheet with clues relating to adult-themed objects and images in the museum, tasked with tracking them down.

A marble statue of a naked Aphrodite crouching at her bath also known as Lely's Venus
A marble statue of a naked Aphrodite crouching at her bath also known as Lely's Venus

Once they succeed, they will then be offered a mix of “intellectual questions” about the subject in hand, or a more lighthearted task relating to it.

Previous hunts have seen participants dared to serenade the Museum’s restaurant with a love song, winning bonus points for overcoming their embarrassment in front of an audience.

Others have required guests to act out scenes in paintings.

Of the Love Hunt, the invitation explains: “Throughout the evening you will caper around the museum, finding treasures, photographing them and learning about the artefacts along the way.”

The treasure hunt is carried out in small groups during the Museum’s regular opening hours, with players working around members of the public seeing its sights in the usual fashion.

Parthenon Marbles
Parthenon Marbles

The Museum already allows guests to take photographs freely. With 6.4million visitors a year, it is Britain’s busiest and most popular museum or gallery.

Organisers expect Love Hunt to attract adult players, and are braced for interest from hen dos.

THATMuse said: “It’s fondly referred to as “the World’s Museum”. But with a collection of 8 million objects, covering 807,000 sq feet, just where does one start?!?

“Join us on a treasure hunt to give you some focus, threading themes and cultures together.”

The British Museum runs its own family-friendly treasure hunts, inviting children to become “explorers” with a journey of discovery around the museum.

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