Artist threatened with lawsuit over nude Donald Trump picture

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The artist behind a nude picture of Donald Trump has been threatened with a lawsuit if she sells it.

Illma Gore's painting of the US Republican hopeful, which is displayed at the Maddox Gallery in London and depicts Trump with a small penis, caused huge controversy after a picture of the work went viral on Facebook.

She told the Independent she received a call from an anonymous number last week threatening legal action if the piece was sold.

"They claimed to be from Trump's team," she said.

But Ms Gore is not intimidated by the threats and said she would still go ahead with a sale and had planned to donate a protion of the money to Safe Place for Youth, a charity which supports homeless young people.

"It is my art and I stand by it. Plus anyone who is afraid of a fictional penis is not scary to me," she said.

Make America Great Again, which has been valued at £1m, was banned in the US and the artist says she has received numerous death threats from pro-Republican supporters.

The painting, which was made public in February, has been censored on social media and had to be taken down from eBay after previous threats to sue Ms Gore under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

"People put so much power into what genitals should be or look like. If you take away this man's face for example, you get a painting of a typical body figure you will learn in any fine arts course.

"But once you put Donald Trumps face on the body, it leaves a specific connotation to it all, dependent on whether you like him or not. It really shouldn't matter. Basically you can be a massive p***k despite what is in your pants!" she told the Independent.

After her work was taken off eBay, Ms Gore pledged to re-list her work and donate $100 to the Democrat Party every time it was taken down again.

The issue of Mr Trump's anatomy was raised by the billionaire's Republican rival Marco Rubio during a rally in Virgina in late February.

“And you know what they say about men with small hands? You can’t trust them," he told the audience.

Mr Trump directly addressed the comments during a televised debate saying: "I guarantee you there's no problem. I guarantee."