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Orlando Museum of Art files lawsuit against former director over faked-painting scheme

Museum claims that former Art Director Aaron De Groft worked with forgers behind sale of fake paintings

Orlando Museum of Art

ORLANDO, Fla. – The Orlando Museum of Art announced on Tuesday that it is filing a lawsuit over faked artwork that the museum displayed in its “Heroes & Monsters” exhibit that spurred an FBI raid last year.

The exhibit featured 25 paintings — reportedly by the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat — that were seized by FBI agents amid an investigation into the authenticity of the works.

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The artwork was purportedly made in 1982, but experts have pointed out that the cardboard used in at least one of the pieces included FedEx typeface that wasn’t used until 1994 — about six years after Basquiat died, according to the warrant.

In addition, television writer Thad Mumford, the owner of the storage locker where the art was eventually found, told investigators that he had never owned any Basquiat art and that the pieces were not in the unit the last time he had visited. Mumford died in 2018.

Former Orlando Museum of Art Director Aaron De Groft repeatedly insisted that the art was legitimate, though he was later removed from his position, museum officials announced.

Court documents now show that 45-year-old auctioneer Michael Barzman of North Hollywood admitted to prosecutors that he helped create between 20 and 30 fake artworks before marketing them as though they were authentic works by Basquiat.

As a result, the museum put together a lawsuit aimed at De Groft and several other accused conspirators. According to the museum, De Groft

The lawsuit says that in 2012, Barzman and an accomplice schemed to forge the paintings with plans to sell them on eBay, seemingly taking advantage of the fact that the Authentication Committee of the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat would be disbanding in that same year.

According to the lawsuit, three others — Leo Mangan, William Force and Taryn Burns — had offered Barzman thousands of dollars to sign off that the paintings were authentic, and they also reached out to Mumford, who refused their “business proposal.” Court records show that this prompted Mumford to reach out to law enforcement in October 2012.

Force, Burns and another individual — identified as California attorney Pierce O’Donnell — set up a joint venture dubbed the “Basquiat Venice Collection Group,” and O’Donnell again reached out to Mumford’s attorney to have Mumford say that the fraudulent paintings were real, court records show.

The lawsuit explains that by 2017, the BVCG members “apparently decided that bribing Mumford” was a “lost cause,” so Burns instead signed a declaration that Mumford had left her a voicemail in 2013 stating that he “now recalled that he had purchased paintings from Jean-Michel Basquiat.”

The museum also claims that De Groft was persuaded to join in the “conspiracy” by promising De Groft a “significant cut of the proceeds of the anticipated multimillion-dollar sale.”

According to court records, De Groft circumvented both the review committee and the museum’s curational staff to get the Basquiat “blockbuster exhibition” ready in a proposed five months. The staff reported that exhibitions take two-to-three years to curate, the museum added.

“From the beginning, O’Donnell directed every aspect of the curation of the Exhibition, including telling De Groft to ‘find a couple,’ referring to ‘Blacks in art’ and ‘women,’ to contribute to the catalogue for the Exhibition,” the lawsuit reads.

The lawsuit also says that the museum board only discovered concerns by its curational staff after the exhibition opened, citing De Groft’s behavior discouraging “transparency and whistleblowing.”

The entire lawsuit can be read in full using the media viewer below:

Correction:

In a previous version of this article, News 6 reported that De Groft was the former CEO of Orlando Museum of Art. De Groft was actually the former art director. The copy has been changed to accurately reflect this information.


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