The leaving of the Little Prince
Daily Telegraph Mirror , Sydney, Tuesday 16 June 1992. Brett Whiteley is standing next to a prize winning painting of Thirroul. "I'm just drawing the landscape .... . It really is beautiful down here. " Brett Whiteley at Thirroul c.1990 Australian artist Brett Whiteley (born 7 April 1939) died from a drug overdose - a mixture of heroin, dextropropoxylene (opioid pain killer), aspirin, methadone and whiskey - sometime between speaking to his art dealer Stuart Purves on Sunday , 14 June 1992, and 8.20pm the next day (Monday 15th) when he was found dead in room number 4 at the Beach Motel, Thirroul, Australia (Bogle & Henry 1992, Ellicott 2009). At that time motel manager Alex Bo c e s ki and his father-in-law Con entered the room to find t he television on and Whitel ey laying in bed as though asleep. He was found on his back and covered by a blanket pulled up to his