These seven pieces felt like they arrived as provocations, and the public let them know it. Gustave Courbet, The Origin of the World (1866)Courbet’s unflinching view of the female body was too explicit for public display for over a hundred years. It passed quietly between private collectors and was kept out of sight, until it finally entered a public museum in 1995. The photograph nevertheless ignited fierce debate over religious imagery and public funding for the arts. New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani even tried to strip the museum of its public funding over it.