Judge Dismisses Far-Right Efforts to Remove a Miriam Cahn Painting From the Palais de Tokyo in Paris

Associations for the defense of children’s rights had asked for the withdrawal of the work “Fuck abstraction” by the Swiss artist Miriam Cahn, which they consider to be child pornography.

The Paris administrative court dismissed associations for the defense of children’s rights demanding the removal of the painting “Fuck abstraction” at the Palais de Tokyo, which they considered to be child pornography, according to an order issued on Tuesday.

This painting by the Swiss artist Miriam Cahn represents “the silhouette of a man with a very powerful body, without a face, who imposes fellatio on a very fragile corpulence victim” and with his hands tied, describes the court, seized in summary proceedings (emergency procedure) by the associations Jurists for Children, Childhood Sharing, Facing Incest and Innocence in Danger.

This work is the subject of a controversy, these associations seeing it as a work of a child pornography nature, particularly in the face of the museum and the defenders of artistic freedom.

“You cannot take a work out of its context”
Questioned by the deputy of the National Rally (RN, far right) Caroline Parmentier, the French Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, had called last week not to “mix everything”, reaffirming the “fight for the protection of childhood and against all forms of violence”.

“Have you seen the entire exhibition? Have you spoken with the mediators? Have you read the explanations? Because you cannot take a work out of its context,” she continued, quoting the about the artist herself.

The administrative court, which heard the parties on Monday during a hearing, considered that “the work cannot (…) be understood outside of its context and the work of the artist Miriam Cahn who aims to denounce the horrors of war, as recalled in the document presenting the event distributed to the public”.

“Since February 17, 2023, the exhibition has welcomed 45,000 visitors without any difficulty having ever been observed by the Palais de Tokyo, which has received no complaints or reports from visitors and has not identified any minors visiting only the exhibition,” he added in his order.