Gauguin’s partially painted over nude figure may soon be restored.

The article focuses on the conservation and provenance of Paul Gauguin’s erotic polychromed wood panel sculpture Te Fare Amu, which features a crouching naked woman with originally red-painted genitals that were later overpainted green to avoid US customs seizure in the 1950s. The sculpture, carved in Tahiti or possibly the Marquesas Islands around 1895–1902, is part of a promised donation from collector Henry Pearlman’s foundation to the Brooklyn Museum, where conservators plan to reconsider removing the overpaint using advanced techniques. The work’s ambiguous symbolism, including inscriptions and imagery linked to Polynesian culture and Gauguin’s complex artistic themes, has been subject to varied interpretations, while its conservation history reflects changing attitudes toward the depiction of nudity and censorship. [Extracted from the article]