{"id":1178,"date":"2024-01-20T02:07:29","date_gmt":"2024-01-20T02:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ventil.rs\/blog\/life-style\/orlando-museum-drops-legal-claims-against-owners-of-fake-basquiats\/"},"modified":"2024-01-20T02:07:29","modified_gmt":"2024-01-20T02:07:29","slug":"orlando-museum-drops-legal-claims-against-owners-of-fake-basquiats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ventil.rs\/blog\/life-style\/orlando-museum-drops-legal-claims-against-owners-of-fake-basquiats\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Museum Drops Legal Claims Against Owners of Fake Basquiats"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The Orlando Museum of Art announced Friday that it was dismissing its legal claims of fraud and conspiracy against five co-owners of paintings who touted them as the creations of the art world legend Jean-Michel Basquiat and lent them for a 2022 exhibition.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the museum\u2019s board chairman, Mark Elliott, said that in an effort to cut its legal costs, the institution would focus its case solely on its former executive director, Aaron De Groft, whom he said had been responsible for \u201chandpicking\u201d the paintings and then \u201cfast-tracking\u201d them for exhibition.<\/p>\n

The museum\u2019s 2022 exhibition<\/a> of the purported Basquiats came to an abrupt end that June with a raid by members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation\u2019s Art Crime Team, who seized the works off the museum\u2019s walls. A Los Angeles auctioneer later admitted<\/a> to the F.B.I. that he and an associate had themselves forged the paintings, some in as little as five minutes.<\/p>\n

In its original lawsuit, filed in August 2023,<\/a> the museum, also known as OMA, sought an unspecified sum in damages for fraud, conspiracy and various breaches from the five co-owners of the fake paintings, along with De Groft, who was fired by the museum as its executive director just days after the June raid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n