SAITAMA (Kyodo) -- A planned exhibition in Australia of Japanese paintings mainly depicting the misery of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima has been canceled, a gallery that owns the paintings said Tuesday.

The Maruki Gallery for the Hiroshima Panels, located in Saitama Prefecture near Tokyo, said it received an email saying the curator of the gallery in Queensland responsible for the exhibition had resigned and that funds could not be secured to cover the paintings' transport cost.

The set of 15 works by the late artists Iri and Toshi Maruki was produced between 1950 and 1982 based on the couple's experience of seeing Hiroshima just days after the Aug. 6, 1945, bombing.

The works, which were drawn on panels each measuring 1.8 meters by 7.2 meters, are in the Japanese gallery's permanent collection. Some of them were scheduled to be displayed in Australia from November until March next year.

The gallery's curator Yukinori Okamura said he was disappointed to know the exhibition, planned for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, was canceled, but "If an opportunity comes along to exhibit them overseas, we want to be prepared for it."