[Warm thanks to Peter Jordens and all those who sent us information on this topic; too many to mention.] Listed here are excerpts from Alyssa Lukpa’s article on the current scandal surrounding works falsely attributed to Jean-Michel Basquiat on the Orlando Museum of Artwork (Wall Road Journal).
A Florida artwork museum parted methods with its chief government days after the Federal Bureau of Investigation seized 25 work that it stated could have been falsely introduced as works by the Eighties artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Orlando Museum of Artwork Director and CEO Aaron De Groft now not works there, based on Cynthia Brumback, chairwoman of the museum board. She stated in an announcement Tuesday that Mr. De Groft had despatched “inappropriate e mail correspondence” in regards to the authenticity of a number of the artworks in query.
[. . .] The FBI raided the Orlando Museum of Artwork on Friday, seizing 25 work that the company stated it suspected have been linked to conspiracy and wire fraud. The artworks, from a personal assortment, have been displayed on the museum as a part of its “Heroes and Monsters” exhibition, Ms. Bourmas-Fry stated.
The FBI had been investigating the provenance of the work since a minimum of 2014, an FBI agent wrote in a search warrant filed final week within the U.S. District Courtroom for the Center District of Florida. The agent stated she had discovered that the paintings got here from a group that hadn’t beforehand been documented, which she wrote was “a purple flag for attainable fraud.”
The homeowners of the gathering stated the work had been created by Basquiat. The neo-expressionist New York artist died in 1988, forsaking a trove of frenzied self-portraits which have surged in reputation in recent times.
[. . .] The homeowners of the work below investigation lent the works to the Orlando Museum of Artwork in April and July 2021, based on the search warrant. They estimated that the work, together with ones titled “Batman with Prime-Hat” and “Purple Face & Lizard,” have been price greater than $82 million in complete. The homeowners stated that they had bought the artwork from a person named Thaddeus Mumford, who they stated purchased the work round 1982 after which stored them in a storage locker, based on the search warrant.
When an FBI agent interviewed Mr. Mumford in 2014, he stated that he had by no means bought any Basquiat paintings and that he had by no means given anybody entry to his storage locker. He cooperated with investigators till he died in 2018, based on the search warrant.
The FBI agent wrote within the search warrant that she had uncovered false data in a number of the paperwork alleging the work’ provenance. She added that a number of Basquiat specialists believed that the artwork wasn’t genuine, and that a minimum of one portray had been made on cardboard containing a typeface that wasn’t created till 1994, about six years after Basquiat died.
Ms. Bourmas-Fry, the museum spokeswoman, stated the Orlando Museum of Artwork would proceed to cooperate with the authorities. “It is very important notice,” she stated, “that we nonetheless haven’t been led to imagine the Museum has been or is the topic of any investigation.”
For full article, see https://www.wsj.com/articles/florida-art-museum-ceo-departs-days-after-fbi-raid-over-basquiat-works-11656533953
Orlando Museum of Artwork Director is out following FBI raid of Basquiat present
Tessa Solomon, ARTnews, June 29, 2022
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/information/orlando-museum-of-art-director-departs-basquiat-raid-1234633043
Orlando Museum of Artwork director fired after FBI raids Basquiat exhibition
Benjamin Sutton, The Artwork Newspaper, June 29, 2022
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/06/29/orlando-museum-art-basquiat-fbi-aaron-de-groft
[Photo by PHELAN M. EBENHACK/ASSOCIATED PRESS.]