London, Nov 20 (IANS): With over 200 erotic objects, a sex exhibition titled "The Institute of Sexology" was Thursday opened for public at the prestigious Wellcome Collection in London.

The collection, featuring objects spanning art, rare archival material, erotica, film and photography, "is the first British exhibition to bring together the pioneers of the study of sex", said Wellcome Collection in a statement.

Four rooms at the gallery display the research of leading sexologists from Sigmund Freud, Marie Stopes and Alfred Kinsey.

The "Institute of Sexology" also displays work from William Masters and Virginia Johnson -- the duo whose ground-breaking study into human sexuality during the 1950s and 1960s is now immortalised in the Golden Globe-nominated television drama "Masters of Sex".

"The exhibition investigates how the practice of sex research has shaped our ever-evolving attitudes towards sexual behaviour and identity," the statement said.

"Moving between pathologies of perversion and contested ideas of normality, it shows how sex has been observed, analysed and questioned from the late 19th century to the present day," it said.

The exhibition will also feature contemporary artworks exploring sexual identity by artists Zanele Muholi, John Stezaker, Sharon Hayes and Timothy Archibald.

A new commission by artist Neil Bartlett will revisit the sex survey, joining visitors with the hundreds of thousands of anonymous participants whose personal accounts underpin the study of sex, the statement said.