The Vatican is getting sued for using a piece of street art image without permission.

A street artist in Italy is suing the Vatican - the Roman Catholic seat of authority - for using her stylized image of Christ on stamps without obtaining her permission.

Alessia Babrow is suing for $160,000 in damages after her "Just Use It" image of Christ, which she rendered from a 19th-century stylized print of Christ by German painter Heinrich Hofmann, was used by the Vatican for its 2020 Easter stamp merchandise—which the Church sold for 1.15 euros each—without getting her permission.

To create her own unique version, Babrow added her signature heart with the words “JUST USE IT” printed graffiti-style on Christ's torso, and her initials scribbled inside the heart. 

She had pasted her 14-inch-tall piece of street art on a wall near the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II bridge, the central bridge for entering the Vatican. It was here the artwork was spotted by a Vatican art director who proposed using the image for the Vatican’s annual stamp, ArtNet reports.

Although Babrow allows her artwork to be used for free, she, however, requires the user to get permission and properly attribute her as the artist; steps the Vatican apparently didn't take.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Babrow said in a report by Miami Herald. “I honestly thought it was a joke. The real shock was that you don’t expect certain things from certain organizations.”

Clarifying to the Associated Press that her action was not an attack on the Catholic Church or the Vatican, Babrow disclosed that she had previously sent three letters to the Vatican asking for recognition of her copyright, but did not receive a response, so last month, she filed the lawsuit to protect her rights as an artist and to protect her artwork.

“Suing the Vatican was not really part of my plans,” Babrow said, “Unfortunately, this story is bigger than me.”

With a hearing date set for December 7 in Rome, several lawyers who spoke separately with the AP and ArtNet have said that Babrow has a strong case since intellectual property law in Europe and the U.S. protects artists’ rights even if the piece is created illegally on public or private property, as the medium does not matter in the eyes of the law.

The Vatican has not responded to the lawsuit and declined to comment, the AP and ArtNet reported.

The Vatican printed 80,000 stamps with Babrow's stylized rendition of Christ which it sold for 1.15 euros, with the first run entirely sold out.

Babrow's "Just Use It" Christ print is part of a long list of her portrayal of religious figures which she started in 2013. She has other figures such as Buddha, Hindu Ganesha, and the Virgin Mary with the same heart, and according to her, the collection aims to "promote the intelligence and the brain of the heart."