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Contemporary artists and art galleries have been more active than museums in representing gay and lesbian culture in public spaces in recent decades. However same-sex relationships have a long history that is reflected in the collections of museums that have material from the classical world. The culture of ancient Greece and Rome was less inhibited about the representation of sexual acts than many nineteenth-century museums would have liked. Objects with frank images of sexual acts were discreetly censored or hidden away in secret cabinets. This article draws on one object as a case study, a Roman silver cup dated to the early years of the first century AD acquired by the British Museum in 1999. The cup is decorated with beautifully realised scenes in relief decoration which show two pairs of males engaged in lovemaking, each pair consisting of one older male and a youth. The object could never have been acquired or publicly displayed earlier in the twentieth century. The vessel known as the Warren Cup (after a previous owner) provides a provocative stimulus for debate about male-to-male lovemaking. Discussion of the meaning of the scenes, and the possible reasons why they were represented on such a high-status object, generates more questions than answers. This uncertainty contributes to the power of this object to open up debate. This article will raise questions for educators and students to consider about the Cup, an object which society has only recently ceased to regard as pornographic or obscene. Abstract

Sex and sexuality are fundamental aspects of what it is to be human, but they have been ignored or neglected by museums historically. Some institutions transferred sexually graphic material to secret museums during the 19th and 20th centuries, recognising its importance and preserving it, but denying public access to it. Other museums did not collect relevant material at all. Museums have now begun to respond to significant changes in society and acknowledge sex and sexuality more directly, but traditional approaches impose limitations. This paper focuses on a small number of recent projects that have addressed sexuality through alternative approaches to objects, collections and narratives. Collectively, these raise bigger philosophical questions of intention, audience and impact. Some institutions, including the British Museum (A History of the World in 100 objects) and the UK's National Portrait Gallery (Family Album), have addressed alternative sexualities as an integrated part of broader projects or touring exhibitions that have been aimed at a wide audience. The temporary queering of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Queering the Museum) and the National Museum in Warsaw, Poland (Ars Homo Erotica) are representative examples of an alternative approach that impacts a wider audience, but arguably, in different ways for Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and non‐LGBT publics. Museums have a duty to represent the past and present accurately and meaningfully for future generations, and this includes acknowledging histories of sex and sexuality. Although the projects discussed here adopt different approaches, they all demonstrate the potential for museums to use their collections to help generate greater awareness and acceptance of diversity in sexuality, and a more inclusive and tolerant society.

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