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An Artist's Last Hours on Death Row

Australian artist Ben Quilty taught a condemned drug smuggler how to paint.

Ben Quilty was one of Australia's most famous painters, when he entered into an unusual friendship with a condemned man. Myuran Sukumaran was a convicted drug smuggler on death row in Indonesia. He was a member of a group of imprisoned Australians known as the Bali Nine. Ben was invited to teach Myuran how to paint, as a way to help him cope with his sentence, and he soon started to reveal an artistic talent. The two men gradually developed a close connection, but it was severed by a firing squad.

Image: (L) Myuran Sukumaran and (R) Ben Quilty
Credit: Andrew Quilty

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19 minutes

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