The Orlando Museum of Art announced Friday that it is dropping its legal claims of fraud and conspiracy against five co-owners of paintings it listed as works by art world legend Jean-Michel Basquiat and lent them for a 2022 exhibition.
In a statement, the chairman of the museum’s board, Mark Elliott, said that in an effort to reduce its legal costs, the foundation would focus its case solely on its former executive director, Aaron De Groft, who he said was responsible for “handpicking”. the paintings and then “fast track” them for exposure.
The museum’s 2022 exhibition of alleged Basquiats ended abruptly in June with a raid by members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Art Crime Squad, who seized the works from the museum’s walls. A Los Angeles auctioneer later admitted to the FBI that he and an associate had forged the paintings, some in as little as five minutes.
In its original lawsuit, filed in August 2023, the museum, also known as OMA, sought an unspecified amount in damages for fraud, conspiracy and various violations from the five co-owners of the fake paintings, along with De Groft, who was fired. from the museum as its executive director days after the June raid.
Elliott’s statement Friday said $315,000 of the museum’s total legal fees stem from its compliance with the FBI’s ongoing investigation into the fake Basquiats and the museum’s role in their owners’ efforts to sell them. That compliance included responses to four FBI subpoenas, including two months before the report even opened, and another issued as recently as last August.
The announcement came Friday after a New York Times story on Jan. 12 alluding to OMA’s financial crisis. The museum’s director and CEO, Kathryn Matson, told the Times that the museum, with a budget of about $4 million and an endowment of about the same value, was facing a projected deficit of $835,000 by the end of its fiscal year this June.
There has been public criticism from the likes of Fiorella Escalon, a member of the museum’s Acquisition Trust board and head of the Save OMA online campaign. Escalon said a lack of transparency on the part of the museum’s leadership contributed to the flight of donors, worsening the state of the museum’s finances. After her campaign, she was removed from the museum’s board.
Although the museum noted in its statement that it still believed it could win the case against both De Groft and the owners of the artworks, “the cost of fighting multiple defendants is very high,” Elliott said.
He added, “We hope our efforts to limit our lawsuit will allow us to reduce costs, continue to provide the public with the full story” behind the Basquiat exhibit, “and hold De Groft accountable.”
Reached for comment, De Groft said the WMA “to go after an innocent person in their frivolous, inspired lawsuit is pathetic”. He added: “The Basque paintings are real and I brought real masterpieces to the museum.”
De Groft sued the museum, claiming he was unfairly dismissed and that his professional reputation was unfairly damaged. That counterattack, he said, “will result in a successful outcome of millions of dollars being imposed on me.”