The Greek Slave (sculpture)
Date: 1848
Region: North America
Subject: Nudity
Medium: Sculpture
Artist: Hiram Powers
Confronting Bodies: U.S. clergymen
Date of Action: 1848
Location: The United States of America
Description of Artwork: Sculpture of female nude.
The Incident: Americans were scandalized by the fact that the slave was nude.
Results of Incident: Powers claimed that the slave was a pure Christian girl, being sold on the block somewhere like Constantinople to the heathen Turks, but protected from evil eyes by her chastity and spiritual virtues. He got the statue approved by a body of clergymen, and it was singled out for honors at the Great Crystal Palace Exhibition in London in 1851, took in $25,000 in admissions when exhibited in New York, and sold in half-a-dozen full-sized replicas.
Source: NCAC