Europe
Visitors to the Dutch 'Temple of Venus' (the name of the aforementioned museum in Amsterdam) are whispered to from behind as they begin to examine the exhibits. People turn around... and see a life-size moving doll depicting an elderly exhibitionist. He joyfully and hospitably opens his coat. Half a million people annually begin their journey through the museum with this cute joke.
Here you can see a collection of works by Peter Fendi, the famous Austrian master of erotic scenes. This favorite of the Habsburgs depicted sexual orgies of high society at court during this dynasty. Equally fascinating is the historical passage 'Sex Through the Ages,' which shows piquant details of people's sexual lives from Adam and Eve onwards. Among the exhibits are an oil lamp from Carthage from the 1st century BC shaped like a penis, European canes from the 1920s of the same shape, 19th-century Austrian dildos, and wooden figures of copulating couples from New Zealand. Also worth admiring is the collection of postcards, playing cards, and a collection of Dutch erotic films, which have always been among the most radical in Europe. A fairly extensive exhibition of the museum is dedicated to sadomasochism. Sexual education at the Amsterdam museum is perhaps the most accessible in Europe - the price of pleasure is only €3 and entry is allowed to all persons aged 16 and over, while the usual age limit is 18.
Another Amsterdam exhibition, the 'Erotisch Museum' in the famous red-light district, is small but boasts an antique mechanical vibrator (it works on a spring drive) and a collection of erotic drawings that John Lennon gave to Yoko Ono as a wedding gift.
Copenhagen's 'Museum Erotica' initiates visitors into the details of the intimate life of the great storyteller Hans Christian Andersen. By the way, sex biographies of great people are the highlight of this museum: Sigmund Freud, billionaire Onassis, and many others have already become 'exhibits.'
In the four-story building of the Berlin Sex Museum, one can see about five thousand exhibits, including pearls of erotic art: authentic Japanese shunga prints and 18th-century Chinese paintings on silk. The museum has a cinema where you can watch vintage, still silent erotic films and comics. The museum is named after Beate Uhse - the founding mother of the post-war German sex industry. It was she who in the 1950s was a pioneer in the fight for the right to sell hormonal contraceptives and opened the world's first 'marital hygiene' store.
Another German city that has its own sex museum is Hamburg. The Erotic Art Museum of Klaus Becker is a concentration of perhaps the most impressive collection of European painting, lithography, and drawing on the given theme. Becker suffered from local moralists and Puritans who demanded the removal of the most explicit works from public display. The German magnate shelled out about $6 million to arrange a new home for this part of his collection - the Privat Museum. Currently, these two establishments attract about 100,000 tourists per year.
Perhaps the most shocking can be considered the Prague Museum of Sex Toys: here you can find the fruits of the most sophisticated human fantasies, from anti-masturbation devices of the Victorian era and the 'throne' (a rocking chair, of course, not an ordinary one but with a secret) popular in French brothels about two hundred years ago, to modern sex machines and sadomasochistic devices. The management has extensive development plans for their creation - visitors may soon see projects of patented but never mass-produced sex machines, erotic footwear for fetishists, and even a cyber machine - a computer through which one can achieve sexual satisfaction. The staff here speaks Russian, and the exhibition is open from morning to midnight for persons over 18.
Museums in Hamburg, Venice, and Barcelona are much more 'calm' - they specialize in erotic art. Opened in late 1997, the sex museum in Paris also focuses on contemporary erotic art. In four of the seven halls, the exhibition changes every two months, sometimes taking into account the most significant world events. For example, during the 1998 FIFA World Cup, a parade of models with balls was presented - a seemingly amusing spectacle, but no less sexual. The remaining halls are devoted to classics - Japanese erotic netsuke, pictures of sexual life in Africa and India. The museum's most piquant exhibition is dedicated to the homosexual relationships of the ancient Aztecs. Traditionally, there is its own collection of erotic sculpture and photography.
And the National Archaeological Museum of Naples maintains a permanent exhibition of ancient erotic artifacts, many of which were found in the ruins of Pompeii.
In early April 2007, the British Academy of Sex and Relations opened another attraction in London - the erotic park Amora. Here you can learn the latest news in the field of sex and relationship studies, visit the Erogeny room, where you will be taught to find the maximum number of erogenous zones on the human body; study the Amora Sutra, go through the Orgasm Tunnel, and visit the Library of Love.
Asia
China has also distinguished itself in the museum sex industry. An erotic park has also been created here, but a natural one: you can admire a mountain shaped like a penis, a cave shaped like a vagina, and also get acquainted with ideologically consistent exhibitions such as 'Sex and Chinese Character.' It must be said that this complex in the city of Shaoguan in Guangdong province is quite new, it has been operating since 2004, and the very first Chinese sex museum opened in Shanghai five years earlier.
There are no large sex museums in Japan. But there are small private collections called "hihokan" that are displayed at entertainment centers, resorts, etc. It was the resorts that ruined everything: their heyday was in the 1960s-70s, and now with the decline in popularity of these holiday destinations, which mainly catered to elderly men seeking "something spicy," the erotic exhibitions are also falling into decline.
America
The birthplace of the sexual revolution, America, contrary to popular belief, is a country of Puritan morals. Therefore, it has almost nothing to boast about in terms of museum sex tourism. Except perhaps in Chicago, where an exhibition of sadomasochistic equipment pleases, hiding behind the boring "industrial" name "Leather Museum".
In New York, there is a fairly large Museum of Sex (abbreviated "MoSex"), but many find it boring because it specializes more in sex education than in displaying erotic artifacts or art objects. But if you are interested in the struggle for the rights of sexual minorities or the history of prostitution, that's the place for you. Photo reports of the first gay parades, early-century condoms, and a drawing of a "spanking machine", a separate stand dedicated to the history of New York's sex industry.
The Hollywood Sex Museum is more fun, the free air of California and the proximity of Disneyland take their toll. The eclectic exhibition includes all sorts of things: from ancient Eastern stone figurines to patent applications for unusual sex toys.
Russia
There was no sex in the USSR. Or rather, it was entirely and completely a medical matter. Therefore, the first and only Russian sex museum in St. Petersburg was created by a urologist, Igor Knyazkin. It all started when he noticed that many patients who were embarrassed to talk about their problems found it easier to show where exactly it hurt on wooden models of a penis. Gradually the number of exhibits increased, and the collection, which grew to 15,000 specimens, was taken in by the Center of Prostatology, which Knyazkin heads. The rarest exhibit in the collection is an 18th-century metal chastity belt.
The St. Petersburg museum is mainly remembered because it allegedly houses the penis of Grigory Rasputin. It is said that one of the old man's fanatical followers got hold of his sexual organ right after the murder, preserved it in alcohol, took it to Paris, and gave it to Rasputin's daughter, who then, in the 1970s, needing money, sold it to an antiques dealer. Whether to believe in the authenticity of the thirty-centimeter organ and the reliability of this "yellowish" story - decide for yourself.
And a truly exotic phenomenon, as noted by Turist.ru, is the erotic museum in Israel, where Orthodox Jews wage a life-and-death war even against McDonald's. For now, it cannot boast of anything remarkable except that it manages to exist in its own country.