John Peter Moore, a close Salvador Dali aide convicted of tampering with the Spanish surrealist's work and churning out thousands of forgeries, has died, according to media reports and funeral officials. He was 86.
Moore died on Monday in Port Lligat, a town on the Mediterranean coast of the Spanish region of Catalunya where he and his wife, Catherine Perrot, ran an art gallery meters away from Dali's main studio, according to the respected daily El Pais.
The Empordanesa funeral agency in the nearby city of Figueres, Dali's hometown, said that Moore's body had been brought to the funeral home. No cause of death was reported.
Known as Captain Moore because of his World War II service in Britain's Royal Navy, Moore accompanied Dali on many of his world tours during his 20 years as the artist's personal assistant.
Later, as Dali became ill and bedridden, Moore's influence over the eccentric artist's activities increased, eventually ending in scandal.
In October last year, Moore was accused of dramatically altering Dali's 1969 painting The Double Image of Gala, one of many paintings Dali made of his wife and muse, Gala.
The painting had been stolen from New York's Knoedler Gallery in 1974, and the FBI and Interpol hunted for it for years without success.
It was found in 1999 in the Perrot-Moore Art Center in 1999 in Port Lligat. Moore had radically altered the painting, reducing its size and renaming it Dali Painting Gala.
A subsequent search of Moore's home and workshops revealed 10,000 faked Dali lithographs. He was also accused of dealing in stolen art. Moore was detained, but released because of his age.
He was convicted together with his wife of "damaging the moral rights of the author," but a Spanish court in the northeastern city of Girona did not rule on other accusations because of Moore's age and the senile dementia he was believed to be suffering.
Moore and his wife were instead ordered to pay compensation estimated at US$1.2 million to the Dali-Gala Foundation, charged with looking after the painter's heritage, as well as paying the restoration costs of the painting.
Dali and Moore first met in Rome, where Moore, a British citizen, arranged payment for a portrait of British actor Sir Lawrence Olivier that Dali painted in 1955.
Moore then became Dali's personal secretary and an expert on the artist's work. He put together important collections of Dali's paintings, including The Apotheosis of the Dollar, which he sold to the Foundation Gala-Dali.
The extrovert mustachioed artist died in 1989 of heart failure, leaving an estate estimated at US$87.7 million. The exact value is difficult to calculate partly because of the widespread existence of forgeries, many linked to Moore.
Moore's funeral had been scheduled for Wednesday. He is survived by his wife.
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