Orlando museum and late ex-director's estate drop lawsuits over forged Basquiat artworks

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The Orlando Museum of Art and the estate of its former director, who died last month, have agreed to drop lawsuits against each other that arose from the 2022 FBI seizure of two dozen forged paintings that were falsely attributed to artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.

The museum said in a statement Tuesday that the dismissal ends all litigation between it and the estate of its former director, Aaron De Groft, who died Jan. 18. The museum had accused De Groft of not fulfilling his fiduciary duty to the museum by championing the exhibit, while he claimed that his firing was unjust.

“It is OMA’s sincere hope that this step will allow OMA to continue forward with its mission in partnership with its valued constituencies,” the museum said.

De Groft negotiated to have the museum be the first institution to display more than two dozen artworks said to have been found in an old storage locker decades after Basquiat's 1988 death from a drug overdose.

There were persistent questions about the authenticity of the works, culminating in the FBI's 2022 raid of the museum. In 2023, former Los Angeles auctioneer Michael Barzman agreed to plead guilty to federal charges of making false statements to the FBI, admitting that he and an accomplice had created the fake artwork and falsely attributed the paintings to Basquiat.

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