Obscured Gauguin nude sculpture set to be revealed in its entirety following museum donation

"When the American collector Henry Pearlman bought Te Fare Amu in Paris in 1954, he disguised the oversized genital area with green overpaint to avoid the work being seized by US customs as obscene. In his published reminiscences he wrote that he believed the Gauguin sculpture was "quite sensual" and would need to pass through US customs, "which could have refused admission on account of its indecency"."

"The sculpted relief of the panel is so shallow that Lynda Zycherman, a conservator at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, once suggested that it could be "thought of as a painting on wood rather than a relief sculpture". This makes it even more of an issue that some of the artist's original vermilion paint has been hidden. She criticised the overpainting as a "serious editorial suppression of Gauguin's original concept"."

"The inscription Te Fare Amu is generally translated as "the house of eating", although Pearlman insisted on naming the sculpture The House of Joy. As he explained, the sculpture included the "image of a prostitute, with her genitals exposed and red buttons running up her spine denoting passion". These were the thoughts of the collector, not necessarily those of the artist."

A polychromed wood panel sculpture by Paul Gauguin titled Te Fare Amu features a crouching woman carved in relief with green body paint and red genitals. American collector Henry Pearlman purchased the work in Paris in 1954 and covered the genital area with green overpaint to prevent US customs from seizing it as obscene. The shallow relief sculpture is considered nearly painting-like in its execution. Conservator Lynda Zycherman from MoMA criticized the overpaint as serious editorial suppression of Gauguin's original concept. The work is a promised donation to the Brooklyn Museum, where conservation efforts will likely remove the later overpaint to expose Gauguin's authentic artistic vision and original color scheme.

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