KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24 — The police have denied allegations that it confiscated several art pieces from the 2017 Kuala Lumpur Biennale, The Star reported.

City police chief Comm Datuk Mazlan Lazim told the English daily that the artwork were returned to the artists after the curator acted on police "advice”.

"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 was quoted as saying.

Yesterday news portal The Malaysian Insight reported that police had confiscated several artworks from the exhibition, purportedly for containing "elements of communism”.

The artwork, an installation entitled Under Construction, belonged to a group of Malaysian and Indonesian artists.

It was a collaboration work by five Malaysians from Pusat Sekitar Seni (PSS) and two Indonesians from Population Project.

The police were said to have raided the exhibition at the National Visual Art Gallery on Wednesday and confiscated "several artworks” installed for the exhibition, according to PSS spokesman Aisyah Baharuddin.

Aisyah said she was informed of the matter by a curator, the news portal reported. The group has since pulled out of the Biannale.

"This violates our rights as artists and we have decided to pull out from the KL Biennale 2017,” she was quoted as saying.

Mazlan said the police are currently investigating the matter.