POLICE have seized more than 20 nude photos of an underage girl by Bill Henson from a Sydney gallery and charges are expected.
A number of officers from Rose Bay command and the Child Protection and Sex Crimes Squad entered the inner-city Paddington premises of Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery to execute a search warrant just before midday.
A storm has erupted over the exhibition by leading photographer Henson, which features photos of naked 12- and 13-year-old children among its 41 works but was shut down before it could open.
The seized photographs were of the same girl, who was not from NSW and was believed to be 13 years old, said Rose Bay commander Superintendant Allan Sicard.
Superintendant Sicard said prosecutions were "likely" although he could not confirm whether they would be laid against Henson or the gallery.
"The images depict a child under the age of 16 years of age in a sexual context," he said.
Investigations were continuing, but Superintendant Sicard said the relevant offence was publishing an indecent article under the Crimes Act.
"It's likely that a future court attendance notice will be issued ... upon the completion of investigation,'' Superintendant Sicard said.
The raid was carried out as the gallery owner said it would withdraw the controversial images from the exhibition, which was shut down yesterday.
The Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery said today it would withdraw a number of works that have attracted controversy, and re-open without them.
"Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery will remain closed while the current exhibition is re-hung," it said in a statement.
Kevin Rudd today labelled the images "revolting".
NSW Law Society president Hugh Macken said that if an artist could prove nudity of children was depicted for artistic purposes only then a prosecution was unlikely to succeed.
``The depiction of the human form in art has caused controversy for thousands of years. There's nothing new in this,'' he said.
While not commenting specifically on the Henson issue, Mr Macken said: ``There are two elements to the law: the act and the intention.
``If (photos) show full-frontal nudity of children under 16, that's it.
``But if the artist says this was done for no gratification but for artistic purposes only, then there was no intention of committing the offence.''
For prosecutions to succeed they needed to establish there was such an intention, Mr Macken said.
``If the defence can establish pure artistic intention I can't see how any charges if brought would be successful.''
If an artist produced an image for hanging in a public gallery, it was easier to say their intention was to create art than it was for someone who downloaded it and put it on a personal computer rather than on a poster on their living room wall.