This art museum has a new home for its Picassos: The women’s bathroom

A court ruled that the Museum of Old and New Art in Australia must admit men to a women-only lounge. So it moved some of its art to a ladies’ restroom.

By Rachel Pannett
June 25, 2024 at 12:43 a.m. EDT



Artwork by Pablo Picasso hangs in a women’s restroom this month at the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, Australia. (Photo by Eden Meure/Museum of Old and New Art)

A private museum in Australia has moved part of its collection, including several Picassos, to a ladies restroom after a court ruled that displaying them in a female-only Ladies Lounge was discriminatory to men.

The American artist behind the lounge, Kirsha Kaechele, is appealing a court decision handed down in April after a man complained about being refused entry to the exhibit at the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart because of his gender.

In the meantime, Kaechele, who is married to the museum’s owner, says she did “a little redecorating.”

“I thought a few of the bathrooms in the museum could do with an update … Some cubism in the cubicles. So I’ve relocated the Picassos,” she said in an email shared by a spokeswoman, Sara Gates-Matthews.

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