Wednesday, March 18, 2015

The orange and the blue

Big Orange and Big Blue are back in the Australian courts. You may remember that art conservator, Mohamed Aman Siddique and art dealer Peter Stanley Gant have been charged with creating and selling fake Brett Whiteley paintings. Now the ‘facts’ are being presented to a Magistrate to see if the case has legs for a jury trial. Reporting on the suspect painting Orange Lavender Bay dated 1988 an expert found that ‘the paint does not behave like paint from 1988.’ But the accused are sticking with their they-may-be-fakes-but-they're-not-our-fakes story and that nothing puts them at the canvas face or prove they were involved in the production of the works. Updates as they come to hand.
Images: top Orange Lavender Bay and bottom Big Blue Lavender Bay being exhibited in court


18 March: magistrate has deferred a decision to 'a later date'.