diff --git a/docs/changes.txt b/docs/changes.txt
index dc61983178..3ca125c2e0 100644
--- a/docs/changes.txt
+++ b/docs/changes.txt
@@ -99,6 +99,7 @@ All (GUI):
   enough to select half of a character (Michael Hieke)
 - Significantly improved startup times of XRC-based applications using
   embedded resources on Unix (requires resources recompilation)
+- Fixed freeing of "static" alpha data in wxImage (Axel Gembe)
 
 wxMSW:
 
diff --git a/src/common/image.cpp b/src/common/image.cpp
index 80e2fd7c66..cd5216d461 100644
--- a/src/common/image.cpp
+++ b/src/common/image.cpp
@@ -1671,7 +1671,9 @@ void wxImage::SetAlpha( unsigned char *alpha, bool static_data )
         alpha = (unsigned char *)malloc(M_IMGDATA->m_width*M_IMGDATA->m_height);
     }
 
-    free(M_IMGDATA->m_alpha);
+    if( !M_IMGDATA->m_staticAlpha )
+        free(M_IMGDATA->m_alpha);
+
     M_IMGDATA->m_alpha = alpha;
     M_IMGDATA->m_staticAlpha = static_data;
 }
@@ -1904,8 +1906,11 @@ bool wxImage::ConvertAlphaToMask(unsigned char threshold)
         }
     }
 
-    free(M_IMGDATA->m_alpha);
+    if( !M_IMGDATA->m_staticAlpha )
+        free(M_IMGDATA->m_alpha);
+
     M_IMGDATA->m_alpha = NULL;
+    M_IMGDATA->m_staticAlpha = false;
 
     return true;
 }