FBI seizes greater than two dozen disputed Basquiat work from Florida museum

The FBI raided a Florida artwork museum on Friday and seized greater than two dozen work attributed to artist Jean-Michel Basquiat following questions on their authenticity.

Orlando Museum of Artwork spokeswoman Emilia Bourmas-Fry mentioned in an announcement that they have been complying with a warrant from the FBI for entry to the “Heroes and Monsters” exhibit, which is now within the authorities’s possession. She added that nobody on the museum’s employees has been arrested.

“It is very important be aware that we nonetheless haven’t been led to imagine the Museum has been or is the topic of any investigation,” Bourmas-Fry mentioned. “We proceed to see our involvement purely as a reality witness.”

In line with a search warrant, federal artwork crimes investigators have been trying into the 25 work since shortly after their discovery in 2012. The controversy gained extra consideration shortly after the Orlando exhibit opened in February.

Basquiat, who lived and labored in New York Metropolis, discovered success within the Nineteen Eighties as a part of the Neo-expressionism motion. The Orlando Museum of Artwork was the primary establishment to show items mentioned to have been present in an previous storage locker years after Basquiat’s 1988 loss of life from a drug overdose at age 27.

Questions concerning the artworks’ authenticity arose virtually instantly after their discovery. The art work was purportedly made in 1982, however consultants have identified that the cardboard utilized in at the very least one of many items included FedEx typeface that wasn’t used till 1994, about six years after Basquiat died, in keeping with the warrant. Additionally, tv author Thad Mumford, the proprietor of the storage locker the place the artwork was finally discovered, instructed investigators that he had by no means owned any Basquiat artwork and that the items weren’t within the unit the final time he had visited. Mumford died in 2018.

Orlando Museum of Artwork director Aaron De Groft has repeatedly insisted that the artwork is reliable.

The exhibit was initially publicized to run by way of June 2023 in Orlando, however the museum later introduced it was ending subsequent week. Bourmas-Fry mentioned the artwork’s house owners declined to increase the museum’s contract and have been planning to ship the works to Italy for exhibition.

“Primarily based on my coaching and expertise, I imagine that the considerably superior date of the worldwide departure of the Mumford Assortment from OMA is to keep away from additional scrutiny of the provenance and authenticity of the works by the general public and legislation enforcement,” an FBI particular agent wrote within the warrant request.

No prison costs have been filed.