Here's how Sunny Leone responded to criticism for recreating an artwork

Sunny Leone poses with the artwork. Pic/Instagram: Dietsabya

Sunny Leone recently found herself facing flak on social media for recreating an artwork for charity, which was originally painted by French illustrator Malika Favre.

It was the anonymous Instagram account Diestsabya that first brought up the similarity between the two paintings, while sharing pictures of Favre and Sunny's painting.

"We are all for charity, but stealing an artist's original work - without credit - and auctioning it off for charity (as your own) is just dirty. Left: original by @malikafavre; right: w' by @sunnyleone," the photo was captioned.

Sunny Leone then responded to the post saying that she has not copied the original painting, but was given a photo of it from which she drew it. She wrote: "Hello. Just to give you the correct information, I was given a photograph of this piece of art. I then decided to paint it! At no time did I claim to come up with the idea. I simply painted a piece of art that I saw and loved. It should be taken as a compliment as it was being donated to cancer patients for charity.

"Nothing more and nothing less. Sorry you don't like the version that I choose to create while helping children in Need. The painting was not about you or I. It was about trying to help! Best of luck! Keep creating."

The Instagram account, Dietsabya, also shared Favre's response to Sunny's painting on their Instagram stories. "Sunny Leone a credit would have been the minimum... Intellectual property is a thing you know? What if I didn't want a copy of my work to be copied by you and auctioned? The cause is commendable, the attitude not so much," Favre wrote.

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