Actress Sunny Leone has been blasted on social media for copying for charity an artwork originally painted by French illustrator Malika Favre.

The anonymous Instagram account Dietsabya called out the similarity on Monday, sharing snapshots of similar photographs 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 snapshot was captioned.

This forced the Instagram account to call the actress out on social media.

The actress soon replied that she had not copied the original artwork but was given a photograph from which she drew her painting.

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."

Dietsabya then 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."