Cops: No artworks seized at exhibition

KUALA LUMPUR: Police have denied seizing any artwork from the Kuala Lumpur Biennale 2017 exhibition.

City police chief Comm Datuk Mazlan Lazim said reports by an online news portal that police seized artworks from the exhibition were not true.

"There was no seizure. We merely advised the curator that some of the artworks are not very proper.

"It was the curator who then took down the artwork and gave them back to the artists," he said when contacted Thursday.

He added that police were, however, investigating the matter.

The online portal had claimed that a group of Malaysian and Indonesian artists withdrew from the exhibition after police visited the National Visual Arts Gallery (NVAG) and confiscated several artworks installed for the exhibition.

The portal also claimed that the artwork was taken down because it contained elements of communism.

When asked about it, Comm Mazlan said police are investigating.