29. maj besøgte performancekunstneren Deborah De Robertis kunstmuseet Musée d'Orsay i Paris, hvor hun satte sig foran Gustave Courbet 's berygtede maleri L'Origine du monde (Verdens oprindelse, red.) og genskabte motivet ved at blotte sin kusse. I en video fra happeningen med titlen Mirror of Origin kan kunstneren ses iklædt en guldpailletkjole, mens hun fremviser sit skød. Samtidig slår museets sikkerhedsvagter ring om kunstneren og forsøger at genne publikum ud af udstillingssalen. Deborah De Robertis blev til sidst fjernet af politiet, og museet og to vagter har indgivet klager over kunstneren på grund af seksuel ekshibitionisme.
Kunstneren afviser anklagerne om seksuel ekshibitionisme. Hun mener, at hun har tilføjet Courbet's værk en ekstra dimension:
“If you ignore the context, you could construe this performance as an act of exhibitionism, but what I did was not an impulsive act.” “There is a gap in art history, the absent point of view of the object of the gaze. In his realist painting, the painter shows the open legs, but the vagina remains closed. He does not reveal the hole, that is to say, the eye. I am not showing my vagina, but I am revealing what we do not see in the painting, the eye of the vagina, the black hole, this concealed eye, this chasm, which, beyond the flesh, refers to infinity, to the origin of the origin," siger Deborah De Robertis til Luxemburger Wort.
I en pressemeddelelse afviser Musée d'Orsay kunstnerens udlægning og opfatter performancen som et udtryk for manglende respekt:
“This is a typical case of disrespecting the museum’s rules, whether for a performance or not.” “No request for authorization was filed with us. And even if it had been, it’s not certain we would have accepted it as that may have upset our visitors.”
Robertis fortæller til franske Le Monde, at hun tidligere har opført sin performance på museet uden problemer:
“I came to the Musée d’Orsay before, about a month ago, to be photographed in that pose by photographers I had chosen, without being seen. I behave in a very natural manner, which is why even when there are guards around, sometimes they don’t say anything. They see something in my demeanor that isn’t shocking. I always try to convey something very pure, with my feminine sensibility.”
(Kilder: Diverse)
Den danske billedhugger Frode Steinicke fik senest Verdens oprindelse i medierne, da han fik lukket sin Facebook profil efter at have postet et foto af maleriet på sin væg.