Police said Friday they expect to file charges over photographs showing naked 12- and 13-year-old children that were supposed to be exhibited at a Sydney art gallery.

The exhibit by leading Australian photographer Bill Henson was scheduled to open Thursday night at the contemporary art gallery but was suspended following public outrage over the pictures.

Some of the photographs included naked children, and police removed about 20 photos of a 13-year-old girl from the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery.

The gallery and Henson issued a statement on the gallery’s Web site Friday that said the exhibition would reopen without the controversial images.

“After much consideration we have decided to withdraw a number of works from the current Bill Henson exhibition that have attracted controversy. The current show, without the said works, will be reopened for viewing in coming days,” the statement said.

Attempts to find a phone number or e-mail address for Henson or an agent for comment were unsuccessful Friday.

Attempts to seek further comment from the gallery were also unsuccessful. A person who answered the phone referred questions to the statement, and no one answered the phone when the AP called again later. No one answered the door at the gallery later Friday.

In the statement, the gallery defended Henson’s reputation as an internationally respected contemporary artist. His work is on display in Australia’s major art galleries and is part of collections in New York’s Guggenheim Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and other venues.

Police said the gallery agreed Thursday to temporarily suspend the exhibit to allow investigators time to speak to the children in the photos and their parents. Local Area Commander Allan Sicard described some of the photos as depicting the 13-year-old girl “in a sexual content.”

“Police are investigating this matter and it is likely that we will proceed to prosecution on the offense of publishing an indecent article under the Crimes Act,” Sicard said. He would not specify who was likely to be charged.

The issue has drawn debate in news reports and talk radio, and even Prime Minister Kevin Rudd weighed in during a morning interview on Nine Network television.

“I find them absolutely revolting,” he said when showed the photographs. “Whatever the artistic view of the merits of that sort of stuff _ frankly I don’t think there are any _ just allow kids to be kids.”

Child protection group Braveheart labeled the photos child pornography and exploitation and called for Henson and the gallery to be prosecuted.

But some artists and gallery patrons viewed the shutdown as censorship.

“I think the sexualization of children is an extremely important (issue),” said art market analyst Michael Reid. “The question is: ‘Was there consent?’ which I can’t answer, and ‘Has the image been sexualized?’ In my opinion, it wasn’t.”

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On the Net:

Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery: http://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/