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According to the family to the newspaper Berlingske, Westergaard died in his sleep after a long illness.
Also read: Danish Artist Cartoon Drawing of Prophet Muhammad Dies
He became the illustrator behind 12 pictures published by a conservative daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2005 under the title “The Face of Mohammed“, one of which sparked outrage among Muslim communities around the world.
In Islamic tradition, drawing the figure of the Prophet is prohibited.
Anger escalated into anti-Danish violence across the Muslim world in 2006 in which dozens were killed, with the Danish embassy being attacked, including one in Damascus that was set ablaze.
The violence associated with the cartoon culminated in a 2015 massacre in France that left 12 people dead at the offices of the satirical weekly mingguan Charlie Hebdo in Paris, which had reprinted the cartoon in 2012.
A total of 17 people were killed in three days during a series of attacks that horrified France. All three attackers died in a shootout with police, leaving only the attackers’ accomplices to stand trial.
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Death threats against Westergaard in private finally forced him into hiding. In 2008 the three major Danish newspapers reprinted the cartoon after the arrest of three men for plotting to kill the cartoonist. One was released without charge, the other was deported and the third was sent to an asylum center.
In early 2010, Danish police arrested a 28-year-old Somali armed with a knife and ax at Westergaard’s home, where he planned to kill him.
Westergaard has worked at Jyllands-Posten since the mid-1980s as an illustrator, and according to Berlingske the image has been printed once before but without causing much controversy.
During the last years of his life Westergaard, like a number of others associated with the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, had to live under police protection at a secret address.
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