LONDON -- The first public autopsy in Britain for 170 years will go ahead despite the threat of police action, the maverick German doctor behind the project vowed.

Professor Gunther von Hagens, the doctor who attracted a storm of controversy with an exhibition featuring "plastinated" human corpses, said he would stage the post-mortem before a sell-out audience in London Wednesday.

His defiant stand came despite a written warning from government anatomy inspector Jeremy Metters, threatening the professor with "criminal penalties" and saying he had alerted police and asked that they take "appropriate action".

"It appears that Professor Von Hagens is planning to undertake a procedure that would constitute a criminal offense under the anatomy act," he said in a statement.

Neither the professor nor the venue had post-mortem licenses under the Anatomy Act, Metters said.

But the professor insisted he felt "perfectly entitled" to carry out the public post-mortem, which will be televised by Britain's channel 4 television.

"HM inspector's (Metters') attitude reminds me of the times when clergymen reserved the right to read the Bible," he said. "The time is over when the medics can insist on exclusive knowledge about vital medical procedures."

About 500 people have paid 12 pounds (19 dollars, 19 euros) each for tickets to the two-hour public autopsy, which will be shown on giant screens inside an art gallery, and the organs passed around the audience in trays.

A Scotland Yard spokesman refused to comment on whether police would attend the gallery or if the professor would face arrest.

"Any complaint or evidence received relating to criminal activity will be looked at and any appropriate action taken," he said.

Public dissections were popular in the 16th century, with temporary anatomical theatres constructed in London and the last public autopsy taking place around 1830.

Since then, such examinations have been increasingly confined to medical professionals and students.