EDGECOMB — The Maine Arts Commission entered the fray over a confiscated photograph of a nude father and son Thursday, urging U.S. Attorney Richard S. Cohen to abandon the government’s effort to destroy the picture on grounds that it is obscene.

The 21-member commission voted to send Cohen a letter opposing the legal action pending in U.S. District Court in Bangor, citing the panel’s “statutory obligation to advocate for freedom of artistic expression.”

“Since the photograph in question has been published, has been exhibited in major galleries, and has been available to the public since 1962 without incident, the decision to take the photo to court on an obscenity charge is inappropriate in our opinion,” wrote the panel’s chairwoman, Susan Hawkes.

“What we’re saying is, drop it as a case. It’s not an issue,” said Alden Wilson, executive director of the commission, which administers most of the $800,000 to $900,000 that Maine receives annually from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Wilson noted that the Walter Chappell photograph, which shows the noted photographer in the nude as he holds his naked infant son, has been in the public domain for 28 years. It has appeared in galleries across the country and is included in a Harper & Row collection of American nude photography.

It should not be “considered anything but art,” Wilson said.

Cohen hinted last week that he may drop the case in light of new information provided by the attorney for Birgit Lenderink of Barnet, Vt., who is fighting to get her picture returned.

“I hope to make a decision as expeditiously as possible,” Cohen said Thursday afternoon.