by the commentator on 19 December 2013 22:42

A nude painting named Juno, which was painted by baroque artist G E Schröder and has hung in the dining room of the Swedish Parliament for 30 years has been taken down for fear of offending the sensitivities of feminists and Muslim visitors, Swedish newspaper, The Local reported on Thursday.

Explaining the ban on the baroque breasts, a source from the parliament said: "You have to think of the foreign guests, especially those from Muslim countries."

The deputy speaker of Sweden's parliament, Susanne Eberstein, also a prominent Social Democrat, added:

"I think it is more a feminist issue. It's tiresome (looking at) a bare-breasted woman when I sit at public dinners with foreign guests. I think it feels a little hard to sit there with men who look at us women."

One humourist in Britain wondered why Swedish lawmakers could not have emulated the famous English comic Mr. Bean (who once posed in a movie as an art critic) and get someone to paint a bra on top of the offending mammaries in order to preserve modesty and thus prevent offence.

In Sweden, the move is being lambasted as political correctness gone mad. It is not clear whether the Swedish Parliament will now stop taking women, and guests from Muslim countries to art museums.

Sweden is known for a conflictual relationship with issues of tolerance. The country recently attracted international attention for allowing a convicted paedophile man in his 60s to adopt a young child.

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