World Erotic Art Museum
12,000 square feet of erotic art spanning 5,000 years of human history. It's on Miami Beach. It's surprisingly serious.
The World Erotic Art Museum — WEAM — occupies 12,000 square feet on Washington Avenue in South Beach and houses one of the most comprehensive collections of erotic art in the world. The collection spans ancient fertility figurines, Renaissance engravings, Japanese shunga woodblocks, Victorian erotica, and contemporary works. It is, despite its name, a genuinely serious museum.
The collection was assembled over decades by Naomi Wilzig, a New Jersey grandmother who began collecting in the 1990s. She opened the museum in 2005. It is the only museum of its kind in the United States.
The curatorial approach is anthropological rather than prurient — the museum frames erotic art as a window into how different cultures across history have understood the body, desire, and reproduction. The collection includes pieces from ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, India, China, Japan, and pre-Columbian Americas. It is not what most people expect, and most people leave having learned something.
Located at 1205 Washington Ave, Miami Beach. Adults only — 18 and over. Open daily. Admission charged. The gift shop is exactly what you'd expect. The museum is a short walk from Lincoln Road and the Bass Museum.