An artist, Chris Devin painted a mural of former U.S first lady Michelle Obama dressed as an Egyptian queen on a building in the Chicago neighborhood where she grew up as a child- but instead of getting praise for the work painted on Friday last week, Devin has been heavily criticized and blasted online in recent days after people noticed that he copied the painting from another artist, Gelila Mesfin, who had posted an identical portrait of Michelle Obama on Instagram last year.
Reacting to Devin's painting, Mesfin said on Instagram:
"How can you just steal someone's artwork... someone's hard work and claim it like it's yours...How can you go on record and say you designed this... this is so disheartening and so disrespectful on so many levels...It's one thing to share or even profit from someone's work but to claim it as yours is just wrong!"
But Devin has denied knowing about the artwork prior to his painting and says from now on he'll credit her for the work.
See Mesfin's 'original' artwork below and tell us who you think is telling the truth.
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