An English artist has apologised after Australian Aboriginal elders accused her of "stealing" from their culture in her artwork featured in Ricky Gervais's wildly popular new Netflix series.

Key points: Aboriginal art industry says artwork featured in After Life series amounts to "cultural theft"

Aboriginal art industry says artwork featured in After Life series amounts to "cultural theft" The English artist responsible for the work says she "truly regrets it has caused offence"

The English artist responsible for the work says she "truly regrets it has caused offence" The community of Papunya is considered the birthplace of contemporary Indigenous art

The British comedian's series, After Life, has been widely viewed around the world, holding the number-one trending spot on Netflix since its release last week.

Gervais's character's living room is seen frequently throughout the program and features a large dot-painting resembling art produced in remote Aboriginal communities in central Australia.

Commenting on social media, fans were excited to track down the Indigenous artist whose work had hit the big time, but that quickly turned to disappointment.

It emerged the work was done by a female English painter who instead replicated the style of Aboriginal art.

"It is a strong image … it belongs to the Papunya style, " said Punata Stockman, chairperson of the Papunya Tjupi art centre.

"It should not be shown. It's someone else's painting, someone else's story."

Ms Stockman is one of three senior women from the Northern Territory community of Papunya who told the ABC they believed the piece in After Life looked strikingly similar to art produced in their community, which often depicted centuries-old customs and law.

The community of Papunya is largely considered to be the home of the modern Australian Indigenous art movement that took off in the 1970s.

The women believe the featured work depicts "men's business" and should not be painted by any female.

Linda Anderson Jonggarda believes the piece in After Life looks like Papunya-style art. ( Supplied: Papunya Tjupi art centre )

"I was shocked this morning when I looked at it … it shouldn't be copied … this is stealing," Luritja Pintubi community artist Linda Anderson Jonggarda said.

"They don't understand. They just see it as something that goes on display, [but] we don't see it that way.

"We see it as that's our history, that's our connection to who we are.

"This is our connection our land, our country, our people, it's amazing. This knowledge has been passed on for generations."

English painter 'sorry' and 'surprised'

The artist who painted the work, London-based Timna Woollard, has now "sincerely apologised" and said she did not know the piece was going to be used.

"The picture's re-use was bought to my attention, and I truly regret that it has caused offence. This was never my intention," she said in a statement to the ABC.

"In 1999, I was commissioned to paint several paintings in a variety of styles for a UK-based television and film prop company.

"This picture was one of them. Two decades later, I was surprised to see it used in Ricky Gervais's Netflix drama After Life."

On the left, the art featured in the Netflix After Life series and on the right, a work from the Aboriginal community of Papunya in Australia's central desert region. ( Supplied )

She said she would never paint such a work in this day and age and has now removed the image from her website.

"When I painted it back in 1999, the issues around Indigenous art from Australia were under-discussed in the UK," she said.

"In retrospect it was naive of me to paint in this style as I lacked a full understanding of the symbolism and meaning in Indigenous art forms.

"I am now far more aware of the sensitivities around Indigenous art and would not paint in this idiom again."

The ABC reached out to After Life's production company, Derek Productions, for comment, but was referred to Netflix. So far there has been no response.

'A long way to go' to stop 'fake art' industry

The Indigenous Art Code said it would now write to Netflix to encourage them to create formal protocols for handling Indigenous content.

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The chief executive of the code, Gabrielle Sullivan, said this incident of "misappropriation" was just the tip of the iceberg and "unethical" and "fake" products existed in fine art, film, sculptures and souvenir industries.

"There's work that's absolutely fake, like this one [in After Life] , then there's fake boomerangs coming from Indonesia, and then there's poor deals for artwork that has been licensed," she said.

"People will say, 'I don't understand cultural misappropriation', or 'I didn't understand Indigenous intellectual property, when I created it my intention wasn't to steal something', but it's just not good enough.

"It is cultural theft … it's highly unethical."

A federal parliamentary inquiry into the issue concluded fake Aboriginal art "cannot be allowed to continue unchecked" and handed down eight recommendations to protect Indigenous works.

There is yet to be any formal response from the Government.

Intellectual property lawyer Terri Janke said Australian laws made it difficult for Indigenous artists to protect their works.

"This is the gap in the law here, the designs and the way the image is represented is their (the artists') heritage, their intellectual property, [but] they're collectively-owned," Ms Janke said.

"So an artist could imitate the style and [because it's collective ownership], copyright laws won't apply."

She said this incident highlighted greater reforms were needed on an international scale as well.

"We want to be able to enjoy Aboriginal stories and Aboriginal culture in a way that is respectful," Ms Janke said.

"It becomes another part of our culture that we can no longer own or control."

For Linda Anderson Jonggarda, stopping fake art was about much more than money, it was about cultural survival.

"We don't want to see it go to someone else, and [our stories] become someone else's property," she said.

"It is special to us."