“The idea of trying to dispirit someone by destroying what they’ve made, even if the subject is, on its surface, innocuous, is very common in warfare,” added Ms. Thompson, a professor of art crime at John Jay College. She said she would be distressed if United States officials destroyed art created by their prisoners.

At Guantánamo Bay, art classes have been available for nearly a decade. The detainees were allowed to give their creations to their lawyers, often as thank you gifts or for safekeeping.

One lawyer, Beth D. Jacob, said her client showed her his paintings when they first met. “I was impressed by it, and he told me that the art teacher there had complimented him,” she said. So last year, she reached out to Ms. Thompson about putting them on display. Several other Guantánamo detainees agreed to participate, and the exhibition was unveiled last month.

It includes a piece called “Vertigo at Guantánamo,” a series of colorful dots in concentric circles that call to mind a gaping hole. That one was by Abd al Aziz Ali, a citizen of Pakistan who also goes by Ammar al-Baluchi and was charged with helping to orchestrate the Sept. 11 attacks.

The exhibition also includes a painting of the Statue of Liberty in front of an electric-blue sea. That work is by Ms. Jacob’s client, Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah al Ansi, a Yemeni citizen. American officials suspected him of working as a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden, but he was cleared by a tribunal last year and transferred to Oman in January.

Also on display are intricate models of ships, their white sails stamped with the words “APPROVED BY U.S. FORCES” to show that they were inspected by military officials on their way out of the prison. Those are by Moath Hamza Ahmed al Alwi, a prisoner at Guantánamo Bay who has been accused of associating with Al Qaeda operatives, but has not been charged with any crime.

Each piece of art was subject to a rigorous security check on the way out of Guantánamo, and the review process took weeks, said Mr. Kassem, whose legal clinic represents Mr. Alwi. Mr. Kassem added that he was never given a reason for the apparent change, and formally sought an explanation from the joint task force at Guantánamo Bay this month. That was denied, he said, adding that people at the Defense Department told him the decision stemmed from news coverage of an art exhibition in New York.