The British Museum’s new exhibition may be hardcore, but it’s the humour and humanity that really thrills, says Adrian Hamilton. Can hardcore pornography ever be considered art? Not in the West, where the definition of high versus low art has long banished graphic depictions of sex to the realms of dirty men in mackintoshes and decadent connoisseurs of the perverse. [Source]

Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art, British Museum, London WC1B 3DG (020 7323 8181) 3 October to 5 January; The Night of Longing: Love and Desire in Japanese prints, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (01223 332900) 1 October to 12 February

Read a review of the exhibition on BBC here.