Fake Whiteley paintings not "being used as coffee table"
Police have assured the judge presiding over Australia's biggest art fraud case that two of the paintings in question are not “being used as a coffee table.” Melbourne art dealer Peter Gant and art conservator Mohamed Aman Siddique​ were found guilty of obtaining a financial advantage by deception and attempting to obtain a financial advantage by deception after selling three fake Brett Whiteley paintings for more than AUS3m. The “coffee table” comment came as the verdicts were handed down. The paintings are being held in police storage and their fate will be decided when Gant and Siddique are sentenced.



Two of the fake Brett Whiteley paintings at the centre of Australia's biggest art fraud were not being used as a coffee table by police, a court has heard.

Barrister Trevor Wraight​, QC, asked Supreme Court Justice Michael Croucher on Tuesday what had happened to the paintings - Blue Lavender Bay and Orange Lavender Bay - after a jury found they had been created and sold by Melbourne art dealer Peter Gant and art conservator Mohamed Aman Siddique​.

Art dealer Peter Gant has been found guilty of selling fake Brett Whiteley paintings. Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

The Blue Lavender Bay painting was sold for $2.5 million to Sydney Swans chairman Andrew Pridham in 2007 and the Orange Lavender Bay sold for $1.1 million to Sydney luxury car dealer Steven Nasteski​ in 2009.

A third fake painting, Through the Window, was offered for sale by Gant for $950,000.