2023-08-16 18:43:56
Basquiat Exhibit Flyer at the Orlando Museum
The Orlando Museum of Art (OMA), in Florida, sued its former director Aaron de Groft and other people responsible for an exhibition of works attributed to Haitian-born artist Jean-Michel Basquiat whose authenticity is disputed and are in dispute. power of the Police since last year.
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The president of the OMA Board of Trustees, Mark Elliott, said in a statement to local media published this Wednesday that it is mandatory to file a lawsuit when there are doubts regarding the authenticity of the works in the “Heroes & Monsters” exhibition, inaugurated in February 2022. when De Groft ran the museum.
A banner announcing an exhibition by artist Jean-Michel Basquiat hangs outside the Orlando Museum of Art, where a collection of Basquiat’s paintings will be on display, in 2022, in Orlando, Fla. (AP/John Raoux)
The lawsuit “details the facts and circumstances that led to these works ultimately arriving at the museum and seeks to hold accountable the individuals the museum believes knowingly misrepresented the authenticity and provenance of the works,” Orlando’s WESH television station quoted Elliott. The Board expects the case to be brought to a jury trial.
De Groft and the owners of the alleged “Basquiats”, who are also sued, have denied wrongdoing and maintain that the works are really Basquiat’s, local media reported.
When the museum opened “Heroes & Monsters,” it said the exhibition brought together a “rare group” of 25 Basquiat paintings that sat in storage for years until they were brought back to light in 2012.
Supposedly the paintings were stored in a warehouse for 30 years
However, The New York Times published information coinciding with the opening of the exhibition in which a number of experts were skeptical that these works were created by Basquiat, one of the most sought-following and influential artists of the last century.
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Agents of the FBI, the US Investigative Police, seized the paintings from the exhibition shortly following and the Board of Trustees of the Museum dismissed De Groft.
Aaron de Groft (Video Capture)
When The New York Times published his story on “Heroes & Monsters,” De Groft assured the Orlando media that the article was “an avalanche of inaccuracies” and that it was “without a doubt” Basquiat’s creations.
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Forbes magazine noted then that the 25 paintings were authenticated by Diego Cortez, the art curator who made Basquiat famous and who led the committee to authenticate the artist’s estate following his death in 1988.
Police personnel take the works from the Orlando Museum of Art in Orlando following the allegations (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel via AP)
The story goes that Basquiat sold those 25 pieces to television writer-producer Thaddeus Mumford for $5,000 when he took a temporary residence in Los Angeles in 1982.
Among other arguments put forward by the experts cited by The New York Tomes to doubt that the paintings are by Basquiat is that the work “Untitled (Self-Portrait or Crown Face II)” is painted on cardboard from a FedEx package, although the The shipping company allegedly did not start using such boxes until 1994, six years following the artist’s death.
An auctioneer admitted to the FBI in a plea deal earlier this year that he actually helped create the works, according to reports.
Source: EFE
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