Mapplethorpe photos donated to Italian museums

Several of Robert Mapplethorpe's images will be staying in Italy, as the influential U.S. photographer's foundation has donated several works recently on display in Florenceto Italian state museums.

The Mapplethorpe Foundation has donated the 1985 photos Von Hackendahl and Derrick Cross to the Galleria dell'Accademia.

A third image, a cross-dressing self-portrait the photographer captured in 1980, will join the collection of the Uffizi Gallery.

Last May, the Galleria dell'Accademia opened the exhibition Perfection in Form, which displayed approximately 90 of the photographer's images.

A selection weredisplayed amid classical artincluding Michelangelo's David to underline how the American's oeuvre also explored perfection and physical beauty.

Originally slated to run for four months, the exhibit proved so successful that it was extended until this past January.

New York-born Mapplethorpe, who died from complications related to AIDS in 1989, is known for his stylized, large-scale black and whitephotographs of flowers, nudes and celebrities. Some of his images caused controversy for their sexually charged and homoerotic themes.