Sunny Leone faces heat for 'stealing' artist's original work; actress defends herself

Sunny Leone faced a lot of heat for allegedly stealing an artist's original work of art, and posting it without giving due credit.

The actress recently posted some pictures of a painting that she made to be given for auction, and the money to be given for charity work. "Finally done! Giving this one for auction to help raise money for cancer! In loving memory of those who are no longer with us! With each brushstroke, I thought of you and how much I will miss you! Love you! [sic]," she captioned the photos.

Things turned wrong for Sunny when Diet Sabya, an Instagram account known for calling out fashion faux pas, posted Sunny's work and revealed that the original piece was created by a French artist.

The Instagram account criticised the diva by calling her act of "stealing an artist's original work" without giving credit as "dirty". "We are all for charity, but stealing an artists' original work — without credit — and auctioning it off for charity (as your own) is just dirty. [sic]," Diet Sabya wrote.

This criticism caught Sunny's attention, and she tried to clarify her stand by commenting on the post. In her defence, the actress wrote that she just created the painting for a cause, and nowhere had she tried to claim it as her original idea.

Sunny Leone's clarification

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 [sic], she commented on Diet Sabya's post.

While her fans stood by Sunny for the noble cause she was aiming at, many others refused to but her clarification and further slammed her.