BBC News Online: World: Europe

Arts complex goes naked

A major new museum and arts complex in the Austrian capital, Vienna, has had a controversial opening.

Forty-five young women, naked except for thigh-length boots, posed throughout a two-hour ceremony at the Kunsthalle, in what was said to be a specially-commissioned work of performance art.

Critics described the event as sexist; but the organisers defended it, saying it was different from seeing a picture or a performance.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service