The Playboy Italia spread featured photographs taken by Irina Ionesco between 1974 and 1976. These images ranged from Eva in lace stockings and garters to fully nude poses with props like dolls or mirrors. Critically, the magazine framed these images as high art. The captions likely referenced surrealism or the tradition of erotic photography (e.g., Man Ray). However, the context of Playboy —a magazine designed for male sexual arousal—fundamentally altered the meaning of the photographs. In a gallery, one might debate artistic merit; within a centerfold-heavy publication, the images become commodities for consumption. The "classe del 1965" (born in 1965) tag in the issue’s description underscores the problem: it explicitly identifies her age, inviting the reader to acknowledge—and for some, to fetishize—her youth. There is no evidence that Eva consented in any meaningful legal or psychological sense; her mother managed her career, and the child later described feeling like a "thing" in her mother’s art.

: Eva Ionesco is featured on the cover of this specific Italian edition.

The pictorial was part of a larger, deeply troubling body of work created primarily by Eva’s mother, photographer . While the specific Playboy set was shot by Jacques Bourboulon, it existed within a 1970s cultural milieu that—under the guise of "artistic liberation"—permitted the sexualized depiction of minors. Subject: Eva Ionesco, aged 11 at the time.

The spread is infamous not just for its content, but for the juxtaposition of innocence and calculated provocation.