Pornhub’s new audio guides help you find famous museums’ nudes

Pornhub, always down for a publicity stunt, is back again with an uncharacteristically high-brow one. This time it’s announcing Classic Nudes, interactive audio tours that will guide you through the erotic art living in some of the world’s greatest cultural institutions.

Once you arrive at one of the six museums included in the program, you can visit the Classic Nudes website from your smartphone, follow the map, locate a piece of artwork, and then listen along to pornstar and Pornhub ambassador Asa Akira as she orates the history of the historical work before you — it’s largely softcore fare, of course; you’re not going to find hardcore pornography in most museums.

Museums included in Classic Nudes are The Louvre and Musee d’Orsay (France), The MET (New York City), The Prado (Spain), The Uffizi Gallery (Italy), and the British Museum (U.K.).

“With museums finally reopening around the world as pandemic restrictions are being lifted, Pornhub wanted to do its part in stimulating the public to visit, explore and fall back in love (or lust) with these cultural institutions,” the company says in a press release announcing the initiative.

Pornhub has long been an innovator when it comes to marrying technology and titillation. It offers virtual reality porn, and in 2018 launched a VPN service so that its users can watch its wares without the risk of being tracked. And earlier this year, Pornhub released “Remastured,” a collection of vintage pornography that was colorized using artificial intelligence.

Plenty of controversies, too — Innovative or not, Pornhub has also courted controversy since its inception. Pornhub-owner MindGeek has been plagued by scandals, including one prompted by an explosive story in The New York Times last year, which documented how Pornhub had been home to illegal content including child pornography and otherwise non-consensual uploads, and slow to respond to complaints.

It has since undergone a reckoning, restricting uploads to verified users and culling millions of videos. It was forced to act following the NYT report as payment processors including Visa and Mastercard cut off services.

Back in April, Pornhub released its first transparency report outlining how it’s stepping up its moderation practices to combat harmful content. The company uses a mix of human and algorithmic moderation to speed up the process of approving new uploads and has dedicated teams available on a 24/7 basis to respond to user reports.