From IOL comes this strange story:

An image of the Roman god of love Cupid and his wife sparked an indecency row leading a Hong Kong media watchdog to ban a book using the painting on its front cover, before later backtracking.

The 1798 painting of Psyche Receiving The First Kiss Of Cupid by French artist Francois Gerard was used on a book to be sold at a Hong Kong book fair.

But a local publisher was forced to temporarily withdraw the sale of the publication on Wednesday because the Telecommunications and Entertainment Licensing Authority (Tela) considered its cover indecent.

"A few officers from Tela took a look at the book and then their boss asked me not to sell it because it is indecent as the Cupids were half naked and the illustrations inside also showed nude images of them," said Alexander Chan, the manager of the book publisher.

Chan said it was the third year the book, a Chinese translation of a Korean publication called "Greek and Roman Myths," had been sold at the fair but he has never come across any trouble before.

But the watchdog reviewed the cover again later on Wednesday and made a U-turn, allowing it to be sold at the fair.

"I was so shocked that this had happened. This painting has been around a long time and has been considered as art. But how (is it that) the officials were so shallow and can't tell the difference between indecency and art?" he said.

"How can they treat them as the same thing? This is a big problem," he told AFP.

Nudity is still equated with sex in Hong Kong, which is now in some ways more conservative than mainland China, which has already staged nude photographic exhibitions and also has many sex shops.

In 1995, the Hong Kong Obscene Articles Tribunal famously classified a newspaper picture of Michelangelo's statue of David as indecent. The ruling was overturned on appeal.

In May, a university journal was also branded indecent for running a survey which asked questions on bestiality and incest.

This is the image deemed indecent ... I guess that "Making Art Safe For Children" contest(s) at Worth1000 were serious! (click on the 'see related' pull down menu for more)