A painting that was taken down by the National Visual Arts Gallery (Balai Seni) for allegedly causing "public distress" has been returned to artist Cheng Yen Pheng.

Cheng picked up her painting, which bears the words ABU=ASHES, from the gallery yesterday.

This  comes after her failed attempt last week to take back the painting, a part of the Bakat Muda Sezaman 2013 exhibition, but removed without her knowledge on the day of the Bakat Muda Sezaman awards ceremony.

Cheng wrote in her Facebook page late last night that the gallery has also "apologised" for removing her painting  without her knowledge.

The Bakat Muda Sezaman or Young Contemporaries is a biennial art competition which started in 1974.

Cheng and artist Izat Arif Saiful Bahri were finalists for last year's competition and their works have been on display since October, until they were taken down last week.

Izat Arif's installation piece features a rack of T-shirts with the Arabic letters 'fa' and 'qof' printed on them.

Both works remain in the official catalogue of the show which runs until March 3.

Balai Seni in a statement said that it had curatorial rights to remove any work from display and had warned the jury that Cheng and Izat Arif's work could be removed.

However, jury member Nur Hanim Khairuddin told Malaysiakini that the gallery had given these two works the "green light" at a meeting with the jury.

Nur Hanim said the jury was also not informed until that the two works were no longer on display.

The award ceremony was officiated by Tourism and Culture Minister Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz.

DAP and PKR leaders have condemned the perceived censorship, citing also previous censorship of the painting 'I is for Idiot' by Anurendra Jegadeva and the installation piece 'Malaysian Spring' by Ng Sek San in the Balai Seni co-curated show 'M50' last year.