Paris life models make nude protest to demand respect … and better pay. The Guardian has the story but didn’t dare to show the matching picture. Fortunately, the French press has less scruples with nudity:

From Rodin and Courbet’s naked muses and lovers to Degas’s clinical study of the female form, the nude has always taken pride of place in French art.

But Paris is now being accused of showing such philistine ingratitude to its life models that scores went on strike yesterday, taking to the streets to pose naked in freezing temperatures to shame the state.

In front of the tastefully decorated Christmas trees outside Paris city hall’s culture department, the naked and goose-pimpled models demanded a pay increase, proper contracts and, most of all, respect for their craft as they held trade union banners in the pose of Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People.

The protest didn’t stay undressed for long. Here you can watch a video (nsfw) which shows that warm clothes were at hand after the photo shoot.