John Peter Moore

John Peter Moore (born March 1, 1919 in London , † December 26, 2005 in Cadaqués , Spain ) was the private secretary, manager and publisher of the Spanish artist Salvador Dalí and was also considered an adventurer.

Life

Moore, known as "Captain Moore" because of his service in the British Navy, claims to have worked as a secret agent during World War II. According to his own statement, he has also served as an advisor to Winston Churchill . In 1955 he met Salvador Dalí , who made him his private secretary and manager . Moore contributed significantly to Dalí's career and became a millionaire himself. In 1975 the cooperation between Dalí and Moore broke up at the instigation of Dalí's wife Gala. Moore, by his own admission, was tired of Gala's jealousy and intrigue.

Dalí and Moore formed a harmonious unit when marketing the brilliant surrealist. The artist himself knew very well "what I have on the Capitano". Even after the separation, Moore was very fond of Dalí, who was in decline in health. There is no known bad word from him about his successors appointed by Gala as advisors and confidants.

In terms of art history, it is one of Moore's great merits that, with the greatest dedication, by the end of 1975 he helped realize Dalí's ardent wish: the museum in Figueres. Before that, Moore and his wife Catherine Perrot had set up a Dalí Museum in Cadaques, which was opened in the presence of the artist. Without Moore's administrative assistance, the official Dalí Museum in Figueres would not have come into being during his lifetime.

The common intention to erect a tomb for the painter at Dalí's Pubol Castle, however, was just as impossible as Dalí's wish to mount his portrait bust created by Arno Breker monumentally on a skyscraper in New York as "eternal light". In the 20 years he worked with Dalí, Peter Moore was his manager and co-publisher of important graphic and bronze editions. Ideas such as jewelry collections, Dalí's leopards and scandalous happenings and societies as well as fascinating characters in Dalí's court, Amanda Lear, were born together by Moore and his master.

Moore hit the headlines ten years after Dalí's death when the Spanish judiciary accused him of circulating counterfeit lithographs by Dalí. A clear definition of what and how should have been falsified was never made public. Years earlier, Moore had given the surrealist the idea of ​​signing white sheets that were then to be printed with lithographs. During a house search, thousands of allegedly forged Dalí lithographs were found near Moore. However, there was no criminal conviction because Moore had dementia . However, he and his wife had to pay $ 1.2 million to the Dalí Gala Foundation.

In the dispute between the self-proclaimed Dalí heirs over the person of Captain Moore, it was no longer possible for him - also because of his advanced age - to publish his memories of the 20 eventful years of contemporary and art history with Dalí. Moore had already determined the title of the memoir: "Soft watches - hard times".

Web links

• Interview with John Peter Moore in CapCreus online