(CS/mlr) Luxembourg artist Deborah De Robertis was taken into custody by French police for indecent exposure after showing her vagina to museum visitors in Paris underneath Gustave Courbet's famous Origin of the World painting.

Dressed in a gold sequin dress, the artist walked into the museum on May 29, sat down below the painting and spread her legs to reveal her vagina in a reflection of the artwork, which shows a woman's genitals and abdomen under the title The Origin of the World.

A museum guard alerted police who took De Robertis into custody for indecent exposure. However, the prosecution decided not to press charges and the Luxembourg artist was released.

Speaking to wort.lu, De Robertis explained that her performance was not simply an act of exhibitionism, but a reflected action, creating a new tableau in play with the original artwork.

An invitation to the performance, distributed to a limited number of people, said that De Robertis aims to destabilise power relations, as well as reflecting on relationships between men and women, and artists and control over their work.

Working in video art, De Robertis recorded the performance and posted it on YouTube from where it has since been removed for violating the site's terms and conditions.

Between September and November 2013, De Robertis was an artist in residence at the “Cité Internationale des Arts Paris” by invitation of the Luxembourg Culture Ministry.