What a lot of Bologna! Facebook 'censors' nude statue of sea god Neptune, the well-known Renaissance symbol of northern Italian city

A virile, muscled statue of the sea god Neptune has fallen foul of Facebook’s prudish policies on nudity after an Italian art historian was told to remove it from her web page.

The sixteenth century Renaissance statue dominates Piazza del Nettuno, a grand square in the heart of Bologna.

A symbol of the prosperous northern Italy city, it was chosen by Elisa Barbari, a local writer, to illustrate her Facebook page, called “Stories, curiosities and views of Bologna”.

But the social media giant objected to the image, which shows a naked Neptune – Nettuno in Italian – holding a large trident. “I wanted to promote my page but it seems that for Facebook the statue is a sexually explicit image that shows off too much flesh. Really, Neptune? This is crazy!” Ms Barbari said.

She said she was “indignant and irritated”, and asked “How can a work of art, our very own statue of Neptune, be the object of censorship?”

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