Ashmolean acquires dickhead platter

An Oxford museum has paid 240,000 pounds for a Renaissance plate which shows a male head made up entirely of phalluses.

The Italian plate is thought to have been made by ceramicist Francesco Urbini in the 16th century. It shows a head made up of around 50 fleshy penises, wrapped round each other to form a dense, knotted whole.

The head is framed by a garland carrying the inscription: "Ogni homo me guarda come fosse una testa de cazi" (Every man looks at me as if I were a dickhead).

From Reuters, with a picture. Another article notes:

A £100,000 grant towards the £240,000 price came from the National Art Collections Fund, the largest it has given for a ceramic object. Further funding came from the Resource Purchase Grant Fund.

David Barrie, director of the National Art Collections Fund, said: "This magnificent piece really made us sit up and take notice - we're often asked to support extraordinary things, but we'd never seen anything like this before."

If they hadn't, they should have: the platter has been known for some time, and has been repeatedly illustrated.

Posted by David on September 18, 2003 11:42 AM