A POP star and former Neighbours actress has provoked outrage by posing for a raunchy photoshoot in front of a memorial to the holocaust.
Xonia, 28, posed suggestively in hot pants, a low-cut top and thigh-high boots at the Bucharest Holocaust Memorial in the Romanian capital.
The stunning blonde, whose real name is Loredana Sachelaru, was widely criticised after sharing the provocative photographs with her army of followers on social media.
And many fans questioned her choice of venue for the photoshoot, wondering whether she understood that it was a memorial to Jews killed in Nazi death camps.
Xonia was born in Australia but her parents are Romanian and she has dual citizenship.
Many also questioned why the security guards who protect the memorial around the clock allowed her to pose for the raunchy photographs there.
Netizen said: “Those people were gassed and you chose the monument that commemorates them to show your a** there?! Very ugly!”
Xonia did not reply to her critics but she has left the photographs on her social media page and is also reportedly planning to use one of them on the cover of her new album.
Any commercial activity at the Bucharest Holocaust Memorial, including photography and filming, is supposed to be approved by the Ellie Wiesel Institute for the Study of Holocaust in Romania.
Elisabeth Ungureanu, the institute’s head of communication, said: “We will analyse the situation to establish what exactly happened, because we do not agree with it being available for the public.”
Xonia has worked with producers such as Rob Davis, Brian Rowling, Doug Brady and Brian Canham who have worked with stars like Kylie Minogue and Olivia Newton John.
She has also appeared as an actress on TV including cameos in top shows such as Neighbours, Noah’s Arc, SeaChange and Holly’s Heroes.
The Holocaust Memorial in Bucharest was inaugurated in 2009 to commemorate the nearly 300,000 Jews killed in the Romanian Holocaust between 1937 and 1944.
In March two British teenagers accused of picking up a hair clipper, buttons and shards of glass from Auschwitz were fined by a Polish court.
Marcus Dell and Ben Thompson, both 19, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge over the alleged theft during a school-trip in June last year.