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The Orlando Museum of Art is suing its former director Aaron De Groft for allegedly seeking to profit from the sale of several fake Jean-Michel Basquiat artworks
Lauren Heath-Jones | Planet Attractions | 22 Aug 2023
The fake artworks formed the cornerstone of an OMA exhibition dedicated to Basquiat Credit: AP
The Orlando Museum of Art (OMA) is suing its former director Aaron De Groft for allegedly seeking to profit from the sale of a number of fake Jean-Michel Basquiat artworks that were on display at the museum in 2022.
The pieces had been positioned as rare paintings created by the acclaimed neo-expressionist in the early 1980s while he was living in California, US. They formed the cornerstone of the exhibition Hereos & Monsters: Jean-Michel Basquiat, where they were said to be on public display for the first time and on loan from a private collection.
The museum was raided by the FBI in June 2022, with federal agents seizing all 25 paintings in the exhibition. De Groft was dismissed from his position at the museum just days later.
Now, the institution’s lawyers are seeking an undisclosed sum in damages for fraud, conspiracy, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty.
De Groft was named in the lawsuit, alongside the five co-owners of the paintings, who are said to have enlisted De Groft to use the OMA’s reputation to legitimise the paintings and increase their value. According to The New York Times, De Groft was promised a “significant cut of the proceeds” once the paintings sold, while lawyers described De Groft’s alleged involvement as advancing “his own economic and personal interests.”
OMA chairman Mark Elliott said that the lawsuit “seeks to hold responsible the people the museum believes knowingly misrepresented the works’ authenticity and provenance.”
The lawsuit says that the museum invested hundreds of thousands of dollars and “unwittingly staked its reputation” to display the fake paintings, which auctioneer Michael Barzman admitted in a plea deal in April 2023 to having created with an accomplice eleven years earlier.
The lawsuit comes as OMA seeks to distance itself from De Groft and the Basquiat scandal, which has seen museum patrons withdraw funds and loaned collections moved to other institutions. The OMA’s accreditation has also been threatened after the American Alliance of Museums placed the museum on probation earlier this year.
According to the lawsuit, De Groft never actually saw the paintings before agreeing to display them at the OMA. “He was presented with one red flag after another, warranting at the very least, both reconsideration of the exhibition and disclosure to the OMA board at large,” it said.
Speaking to The Art Newspaper, Elliott said: “Given that litigation has commenced, the OMA looks forward to representing its case to a jury.”
Museums and galleries
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