It should be a sensation. However, the FBI suspects fraud: 25 previously unknown pictures by the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat are showing the Orlando Museum of Art according to its own statements. But there are inconsistencies that indicate that they are fakes.
The US federal police, the FBI, have confiscated 25 paintings by the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat on suspicion of forgery. All of the works shown in the “Heroes and Monsters: Jean-Michel Basquiat” exhibition at the Orlando Museum of Art in Florida are in the hands of investigators, said a museum spokeswoman.
According to a report in the New York Times, previously unknown, alleged Basquiat works were shown in the exhibition, which has been running since February. According to the newspaper, one of the pictures painted on cardboard bore a package imprint on the back, which was not common until 1994 – six years after the artist’s death. According to the Times, the FBI investigators also found discrepancies in the information about the alleged previous owner of the paintings.
According to the report, the current owners of the works said Basquiat painted the pictures in 1982 and sold them to a screenwriter who has since died for $5,000. He stored the works and later apparently forgot them. However, according to the Times, the screenwriter told an FBI officer during an interview in 2014 that he had never bought any Basquiat paintings in his life and was not aware of any Basquiat paintings in his storage container.
(This article was first published on Sunday, June 26, 2022.)
