The three paintings out of the around other 40 paintings of gods and goddesses exhibited in the gallery were removed in the wake of threat of protest by the public over phone and also a request from police that it might create a law and order problem, said Chief Administrator Officer of Chitrakala Parishath Shridhar.
The paintings were the works of Arvind Sainath Krishnamani, he said.
Parishath rents out the gallery to upcoming and established artists on a regular basis to exhibit their works, Shridhar said.
"On receiving phone calls from the public that they would stage dharna in front of the Parishath if the paintings sacrilegious to Hindu sentiments are not removed and request from the jurisdictional police, we asked the artist to remove the three nude paintings", he said.