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# Too Nude for the News? Colbert on the Arbitrary Censorship of Art
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/too-nude-for-the-news-colbert-on-the-arbitrary-censorship-of-art/
- Published: 2015-11-13T19:24:27.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:42:52.000Z
- Description: Modigliani's 1917 painting "Nu couché" (Reclining Nude) made headlines this week after Chinese billionaire art collector Liu Yiquan purchased it for $170.4 million, but some media outlets revealed their prudishness in their coverage of the full-frontal portrait, partially censoring it.
- Author: Claire Voon
- Tags: In Brief, Stephen Colbert, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:13 (2014, 2015, part 3)

![ezgif.com-resize](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/11/e-com-resize1.gif)

Modigliani’s 1917 painting “Nu couché” (Reclining Nude) made headlines this week after Chinese billionaire art collector Liu Yiquan [purchased](https://hyperallergic.com/move-over-modigliani-some-slightly-more-altruistic-ways-to-spend-170-4-million/) it for $170.4 million, but some media outlets revealed their prudishness in their coverage of the full-frontal portrait, partially censoring it. The *Financial Times*, for example, covered the sitter’s oh-so-criminal bits with crudely Photoshopped black [rectangles](https://twitter.com/ashleighbwilson/status/663473864542826496?ref=hyperallergic.com); TV outlets from Bloomberg to CNBC simply [blurred](https://twitter.com/Caropeille/status/664785464956747776?ref=hyperallergic.com) them out, turning the finely rendered torso into a pulpy smudge. This series of erasures recalls Fox 5 News’ recent [one](https://hyperallergic.com/fox-news-bizarrely-censors-179m-picasso-painting/) of four pairs of breasts on Picasso’s ‘Women of Algiers” (1955) when the painting set a sales record in May. Now Stephen Colbert has addressed this bizarre treatment of art on “The Late Show” in a brief segment that aired last night, examining what network televisions can and cannot broadcast.

> [#CNBC](https://twitter.com/hashtag/CNBC?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=hyperallergic.com) CENSORED Amedeo Modigliani's masterpiece after it sold at auction for a record $170M. Keep it prude, America. [pic.twitter.com/RcS5jkMxo9](https://t.co/RcS5jkMxo9?ref=hyperallergic.com)  
>  
> — Ricardo Góes (@rcalmon) [November 10, 2015](https://twitter.com/rcalmon/status/664073446096306176?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=hyperallergic.com)

As Colbert points out, the censorships naturally beg the question of where we draw the line between art and pornography, and he brings up the fact that Fox 5 News didn’t deem one butt in the Picasso painting obscene enough to receive the executive scrub. He points out that CBS — which airs “The Late Show” — isn’t allowed to place on screen a complete, unimpeded view of the Modigliani, then reveals a pretty ridiculous fact: that he is allowed to display “only a distant picture of \[Michelangelo’s\] David for … a total of two seconds.” Finally, to make clear the incredibly arbitrary nature of network guidelines to showcasing visual art, Colbert takes a pen to paper, draws some simple shapes, and illustrates how even a few lines may dictate a network’s iron rules.

> The Financial Times censored that filthy pornographer Modigliani on the weekend [pic.twitter.com/W4jpQaOfWw](https://t.co/W4jpQaOfWw?ref=hyperallergic.com)  
>  
> — Ashleigh Wilson (@ashleighbwilson) [November 8, 2015](https://twitter.com/ashleighbwilson/status/663473864542826496?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=hyperallergic.com)

Watch the entire clip below:

**Editor’s note, 11/16:** *The* Financial Times *contacted Hyperallergic following the publication of this article to explain that “international publishers are banned from printing and distributing nude images in some countries according to* [*local governing laws*](http://www.moha.gov.my/index.php/en/maklumat-perkhidmatan/permit-penerbitan/garis-panduan-penerbitan-kdn?ref=hyperallergic.com)*.” So while Modigliani’s “Nu Couché” appeared censored in some editions of the paper, it was printed uncensored in most editions.*