Robert Mapplethorpe's "Thomas" (1987) is paired with its inspiration, below. "Phaeton," from "The Four Disgraces," circa the late 16th century, by Hendrick Goltzius.

An exhibit of works by controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe opens today at the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum at The Venetian.

But Elizabeth Herridge, managing director of the museum, doesn't think the exhibit, "Robert Mapplethorpe and the Classical Tradition," will garner the type of reaction the late photographer's work received at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati in 1990.

"I don't expect to be arrested," jokes Herridge, referring to the arrest of arts center director Dennis Barrie on charges of pandering obscenity and illegal use of a child in nudity-related material in an exhibit called "Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment." Barrie and the center, which also was indicted, were acquitted later that year.

"I think people will be impressed with the sophisticated way we present the material," Herridge says.

The 72 Mapplethorpe photographs, which include male and female nudity, are paired with reproductions of the 16th-century Flemish Mannerist engravings that inspired the photos.

"There is so much interplay between the photographs and the prints," Herridge says. "We're trying to draw attention to the Renaissance period."

Herridge doesn't plan any age restrictions on the exhibit. "I don't think anyone will be scandalized," she says. "It's done with taste and judgment. I would tell parents that it's their attitude that will govern their children's viewing. I don't think children, or parents, will be traumatized. We're not doing the exhibit to provoke, we're doing it because it's beautiful."

Mapplethorpe died in 1989 after fighting HIV/AIDS for four years. "He's coming from a time period where we had the dawning of gay culture," Herridge says.

Seeing Mapplethorpe's black and white photographs today, years after the initial controversy over his work, gives a different perspective, Herridge says. "In some ways he's become very classic. The images are elegant, but eroticized. I think (Las Vegans) are ready to see this. It's significant work. There's so much more to it than nude people."

Because of the nature of the work, Herridge admits she took the venue into consideration. "But the hotel hasn't tried to censor me or anything."

The exhibit, a collaboration between the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, already has been shown in the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin, the Hermitage in Russia, the Moscow House of Photography and the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Organized by Germano Celant, the senior curator of contemporary art at the Guggenheim, and Arkady Ippolitov, the curator of Italian prints at the Hermitage, the exhibit features an illustrated catalog and essays by the curators and Guggenheim project curator Jennifer Blessing.

In addition, writer and cultural critic Dave Hickey will give a talk, "Classicism as a Beard," at 7 p.m. Nov. 17 at The Venetian, 3355 Las Vegas Blvd. South. Tickets are $7 for museum members, $10 for nonmembers and $5 for students with valid ID. Reservations are recommended by calling 414-2108.

The exhibit is scheduled to run through February.

Hours at the museum are from 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. daily.

Admission is $19.50 general, $15 for seniors and Nevada residents with ID, $12.50 for students with ID and $9.50 for children ages 6 to 12. Children younger than 6 are admitted free. Admission includes an audio guide.

The museum is celebrating its fifth anniversary in Las Vegas.