Australian Forgery Trial Ends with Guilty Verdicts

The trial of a conservator and art dealer in Australia has ended with a guilty verdict over $3.6m in forged Brett Whiteley paintings:

Art dealer Peter Gant and art conservator Mohamed Aman Siddique had been accused of pursuing a joint criminal enterprise to create three paintings – Blue Lavender Bay, Orange Lavender Bay and Through the Window – in the style of Brett Whiteley, who died from a heroin overdose in 1992.

The Crown claimed Mr Siddique painted the artworks in his Easey Street, Collingwood studio from 2007, and Mr Gant then passed them off to unsuspecting buyers as original 1988 Brett Whiteley paintings.

Brett Whiteley fake art: Dealer and conservator guilty of Australia’s biggest art fraud (The Age)