The architect was controversially forced from his uncompleted masterpiece in 1966 and secretly left Australia with the aid of Sharp's mother. In the mid-1990s, Sharp helped broker a reconciliation between the Sydney Opera House and Jørn Utzon, who subsequently developed a set of design principles to guide the building's future. Death Sharp inherited the heritage-listed house Wirian, in Victoria Road, Bellevue Hill, Sydney, in 1978. The house had been bought by Sharp's grandfather, Stuart Douglas Ritchie, a merchant, in 1937 for 20,000 pounds. Sharp lived there until he died from emphysema on 1 December 2013, at the age of 71. See also Martin Sharp – Profile at MILESAGO Hapshash and the Coloured Coat Martin Sharp – Official website Guardian obituary by Marsha Rowe References Further reading Morgan, Joyce. Martin Sharp: His Life and Times. Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2017. 1942 births 2013 deaths Australian cartoonists Australian contemporary artists Australian songwriters Psychedelic artists Underground cartoonists Album-cover and concert-poster artists Members of the Order of Australia Artists from Sydney National Art School alumni Deaths from emphysema People educated at Cranbrook School, Sydney Australian expatriates in the United Kingdom Australian painters 20th-century Australian musicians Writers from Sydney