Las Vegas restores paintings of nude women to City Hall display

LAS VEGAS

Oct 21, 2005, 08:49 AM
Las Vegas City Hall has restored two pastel paintings of nude women to a display of winners of a city-sponsored art contest.

A city spokesman says the decision came after officials weighed the requirements of federal law protecting workers from a hostile workplace against the US Constitution.

The paintings were taken down came after a city employee filed an anonymous complaint to the city manager.

They were put back up several hours after the Las Vegas Review-Journal published a story deriding the decision, in a city where scantily clad women are a common sight on billboards, marquees and posters on taxicabs along the Las Vegas Strip.

The painters defend their work as as tasteful and artistic, with nothing suggestive or sexual about them.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)