Free Republic

the Venus of Willendorf was discovered in 1908 but originally dates to the Stone Age. One of the oldest surviving art works in the world, the limestone sculpture now resides in Vienna's Natural History Museum, where a woman named Laura Ghianda snapped a pic last December and then posted the image to Facebook. It was promptly removed. A notice from Facebook explained that the naked figure was inappropriate for the social site.... the inability of Facebook's algorithms and human moderators to distinguish obscenity from ancient artifacts provides yet another reason to doubt Facebook's ability to police "fake news." Lately, politicians...

The Venus of Willendorf, a small ochre-coloured figurine from the Paleolithic period, takes her name from the village in northern Austria where she was excavated on August 7, 1908 by three Austrian paleontologists... On the 100th anniversary of her excavation, this Venus is being honoured with a special exhibition at the museum, alongside other artefacts from the same period. Carved from oolitic limestone, she is a round woman, standing with her arms resting on her breasts and belly, her bowed head hiding her face but showing off elaborate hair... The first and only statuette of her kind before the...