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In 1990, conceptual artist and theorist Joseph Kosuth was invited by the Brooklyn Museum to curate an exhibition using works from the museum's permanent collection. The resulting project was entitled "The Brooklyn Museum Collection: The Play of the Unmentionable" and consisted in about 100 works from the collection, all of which were related to the changing nature of human values across history. The works displayed were either once revered, but are now considered objectionable (in content, form, or language), or, conversely, revered in the present despite being abhorred in their original context.
At the time, there was much debate about the public support of—or lack thereof—cultural institutions as well as the issue of censorship. By choosing to display work that