Visitors look at one of the pornographic frescos during a preview of the collection.
Photos by AFP A collection of sexually explicit art, locked away nearly 200 years ago when it shocked a royal heir, is about to open to the public. Alasdair Palmer takes a preview. It has been locked away for nearly 200 years, supposedly because it was too lewd to be seen by anyone except those possessed of that very rare combination of great age and extremely strict morals. The room houses a collection of erotic objects from Pompeii and Herculaneum, the two Roman cities obliterated when Vesuvius erupted in AD79. The material was initially displayed openly, first in the private collection of the Bourbon kings and then in the Naples museum.