The FBI raided the Orlando Museum of Art on Friday and seized more than two dozen paintings attributed to acclaimed artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, nearly a year into its investigation of their authenticity.
A team of FBI agents spent several hours at the museum Loch Haven Park north of downtown, leaving about 1:30 p.m.
Visitors arrived to find closed signs at the front doors. A security officer said he didn’t know why the museum was closed or when it would reopen. But the circling TV news helicopters overhead and the activity at the museum’s loading dock showed it was not business as usual at the nearly 100-year-old institution.
Agents carried boxes and bubble wrap into the building. Then they pulled a van and another vehicle into one of the museum’s garages before departing.
The raid came about a year after the FBI first issued a subpoena to the institution over its “Heroes & Monsters” exhibition of paintings attributed to Basquiat. If legitimate, the works could be worth $100 million, according to experts. But the art has been embroiled in controversy since shortly after the exhibit opened in February.
“Today, we complied with a request from the FBI for access to the ‘Heroes and Monsters’ exhibit, which is now in their possession,” museum spokeswoman Emilia Bourmas-Fry wrote in a statement. She could not offer more details about the ongoing investigation, “given the sensitivities,” but said the FBI arrived with a warrant and that “no one on staff is being arrested.”
“It is important to note that we still have not been led to believe the museum has been or is the subject of any investigation,” her statement read. “We continue to see our involvement purely as a fact witness.”
The “Heroes & Monsters” exhibit was set to close on June 30. The museum was expected to reopen Saturday as usual, Bourmas-Fry said.
Some visitors took issue with the way the museum has handled the controversy over whether the “Heroes & Monsters” works were actually painted by Basquiat, an art-world superstar who died in 1988.
Janice Ritter Kadushin, 75, an artist from the Tampa Bay area, said the museum should have done more to explain to patrons that the works’ authenticity were in question. She, her husband and friends had driven from Dunedin to see the exhibition and judge for themselves.
“I don’t think they did their due diligence in this particular case,” said Kadushin, whose group had planned to spend the night in Orlando.
Gallerist and curator Patrick Greene, who has done freelance work for the museum in the past, said the board of trustees needed to be more transparent with the community about its decision-making regarding the exhibit.
“The board really needs to be under some scrutiny,” said Greene, whose latest project was an exhibition of art on billboards along I-4 and other Central Florida roads. “There’s been no attempt to be diplomatic or listen” to public concerns.
Three members of the museum’s Board of Trustees declined to comment when reached earlier this week, referring questions to the museum’s public relations staff. One board member, Michael Winn, said he was asked not to comment on the matter.
The exhibit had been billed as a coup for the museum, which was the first to show the works. The pieces were said to have been found in an old storage locker years belonging to TV writer Thad Mumford after Basquiat’s death from a drug overdose at 27.
But The New York Times reported Friday that during a 2014 interview and in a signed statement in 2017, Mumford told the FBI he had never met Basquiat nor purchased art from him. The Times was able to review the FBI’s search warrant and related affidavit. Mumford, who died in 2018, also told the FBI he was pressured by one of the artworks’ owners into signing documents saying he had owned the collection, according to the Times report.
The FBI’s investigation is looking into possible conspiracy and wire fraud, the Times reported, saying the FBI probe had revealed “attempts to sell the paintings using false provenance.” Selling art known to be fake is a federal crime.
Questions about the works’ authenticity came to light shortly after the “Heroes & Monsters” opening, based on everything from incongruous FedEx branding on the cardboard on which they were painted to curious details in the storage-locker origin story. The FBI’s affidavit makes specific mention of the FedEx labeling, the Times reported, pointing out its typeface was not in use until years after Basquiat’s death.
Museum director Aaron De Groft has been unwavering in his statements that the art is legitimate, pointing to various handwriting and other experts who have validated it. He is on vacation, Bourmas-Fry said, and expected to return next week. An unnamed Basquiat expert who added credence to the paintings but later said her work was mischaracterized by the paintings’ owners was pressured by De Groft to remain silent, according to the affidavit reviewed by The Times.
There is no formal way to authenticate the work as the authentication committee run by Basquiat’s estate was disbanded in 2012.
In May, The Times reported the FBI had served a subpoena on the museum last July, months before the exhibit opened, and collected museum records. On Friday, the museum spokeswoman reiterated the museum would continue to cooperate with the FBI and was awaiting further instruction.
Originally, the museum had publicized the exhibition as remaining in Orlando through June 2023, but Bourmas-Fry said the contract only guaranteed the art would remain in Orlando through the end of the month.
The extension of the exhibit fell through, she said, after the art’s owners notified the museum they planned to send the works to Italy for exhibition — plans that now seem unlikely with the art in the FBI’s possession.
The collection of 25 paintings is owned by art dealer William Force, retired salesman Lee Mangin and Pierce O’Donnell, a high-profile Los Angeles-based trial lawyer.
Greene said the Orlando art scene remains vibrant and is more than a single controversy at one museum.
But that was cold comfort for those who traveled specifically to see “Heroes & Monsters,” such as Basquiat fan Carmen Lopez-Reimer, who drove from Atlanta.
“I am hoping that it is real,” she said Friday. “What difference does it make to me now? I am not going to see it.”
Jennifer Belland, visiting from DeLand, said she didn’t think the museum owed the public a refund if the paintings are determined to be fakes but were displayed in good faith.
“I still want to see it,” she said. “But maybe for half price.”
mpalm@orlandosentinel.com
