nudity and jewelry

Today I wanted to talk about nudity and jewelry, more specifically, jewelry depicting a nude body or an erotic act. The ring pictured in the photos is examples of the type of "nude" jewelry that I'm referencing.

I wanted to bring this topic up because over a week ago, my family experienced a strange occurrence when we were waiting for some jewelry that we ordered off Ebay to arrive. We ordered a ring depicting an erotic scene, it was beautifully made, and definitely a gorgeous piece of art. Unfortunately, we were informed that customs had taken this ring away. At first we were sure this was Canadian customs, but upon further investigation we found out that our ring was taken away, with no explanation, by the customs in Erlanger, Kentucky, a small town of approximately 18, 000 people. To say the least, we were quite peeved about the whole situation, especially since there was absolutely no reason for the piece of jewelry (and art), to be taken away. I spent some time researching the things that customs can take away, and the only conclusion I could come to was that my ring was taken away because the customs people in Erlanger decided it was "obscene material," which it definitely was not. According to the definition of "obscene material," one of the requirements is that the item have no artistic value, something this ring had plenty of.

At the end of the day, it's quite obvious that the customs officers in this small American town decided my ring was too obscene for their eyes, but it's rather ridiculous if you think about it, considering that some of the most famous pieces of art in the world are nudes. Whether it's Édouard Manet's "Olympia," Gustave Courbet's "L'Origine du monde" or Michelangelo's "David," they are all amazing works of art, that happen to be nudes. If my ring was taken away because it was considered "obscene," how would these people regard the aforementioned works of art? This isn't a question I have an answer to because I'm not at all conservative in that way, but it makes one wonder, doesn't it?

Sculptures, paintings, rings, necklaces, cuff links etc., who cares if they depict nude bodies? The body is a beautiful thing, and if displayed in a manner that does the beauty justice, I see no reason why it shouldn't be displayed proudly, whether it's on my hand, on my wall or in a museum.

How do you feel about nudity and art, and then take it a step further, how do you feel about nudity and jewelry?