Fifteen years after its approval, the Italian Parliament has signed the Faro Convention (Portugal – 2005) the Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society [https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list/-/conventions/treaty/199]. Article 4 says: “c) exercise of the right to cultural heritage may be subject only to those restrictions which are necessary in a democratic society for the protection of the public interest and the rights and freedoms of others”.
During Iranian President Rohani’s visit to Rome (January 2016) some ancient Roman statues were covered “as a form of respect for Iranian culture and sensitivity”.
What “hit the sensitivity” was nudity. Nudity in public in itself is not punished in Italy (the “obscene acts” are punished) and even less the works of art.
If someone declared himself “sensitive” to nudity, he could practically not move Italy, not even visit the Sistine Chapel.
The words “the right and freedoms of others” are to be stressed. This same principle is not always respected.
The situation is similar to the obligation of facial masks: first optional, then hand by hand made mandatory (“for the respect of the health of others”). And it has been made mandatory by overzealous politicians. I think it has always been the overzealous politicians who wanted to impose the ban on nudity.
We who practice nudity daily know how beneficial it is for body and spirit. And we do not poison ourselves with sad thoughts of modesty, just as we do not want to poison ourselves with our CO2.
