MADRID, SPAIN.-John Peter Moore, the former personal assistant of Salvador Dali, has been convicted for touching up an original painting of the Spanish surrealist master, the Dali-Gala Foundation announced today. John Peter Moore, a British citizen who was Dali's closest aid for 20 years, was accused of manipulating the 1969 painting The Double Image of Gala, said Oriol Garcia, spokesman of the Dali-Gala Foundation.

Mr Garcia said that according to the court ruling of October 20, Moore reduced the size of the artwork, which was inspired by the painter's wife, Gala, and later hang it under a different name Dali Painting Gala at one of his galleries in Figueres.

Moore, now 85, was convicted on October 20 together with his wife, Catherine Perrot, of "damaging the moral rights of the author", he said. Both Moore and his wife have also been ordered to pay compensation of an estimated $US1.2 million to the Gala-Dali's foundation as well as to pay the restoration costs of the painting.