The exhibition had one of those fairy tale stories: the Orlando Museum of Art had lucked into a storage unit full of unseen paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiatwhich he was showing to the public for the first time.
Today, more than nine months after a dramatic FBI raid closed the exhibition “Heroes & Monsters”, which ran from February to June 2022, the truth came out. The paintings were not the work of the late street artist, whose work has sold for more than $100 million at auction– but a series of forgeries by Michael Barzman, 45-year-old Los Angeles auctioneer and accomplice identified only as JF
On April 11, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California charged Barzman with making false statements to the FBI. He had previously denied painting the artwork or having someone make it when he spoke to the FBI in 2022. He pleaded guilty to the charge and faces up to five years in prison.
“JF spent a maximum of 30 minutes on each image and as little as five minutes on the others, then gave them to [Barzman] sell on eBay,” the plea agreement said, according to a statement from the prosecutor’s office. “[Barzman] and JF agreed to split the money they made selling the fraudulent paintings.
Orlando Museum of Art. Photo: Jeffrey Greenberg/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images.
The two allegedly created 20-30 fake works around 2012 which they attributed to the artist. Barzman, whose business auctioned the contents of abandoned storage units, concocted a false provenance for the works: Basquiat allegedly sold the cardboard paintings to TV screenwriter Thad Mumford for $5,000 in 1982. Decades later, Mumford was late in the payment of the rents of its storage unit. , and its contents were auctioned off.
It was a fascinating story, and it was one that inspired storage hunter William Force and his backer, Lee Mangin, to purchase the land for $15,000.
After a messy trial surrounding one of its opinions, the Basquiat estate had close its authentication committee in 2012, which made it difficult for Force and Magnin to get anyone to officially speak out on the question of authenticity.
Untitled (Self-portrait with his cowboy hat and wearing Leonardo da Vinci’s flight outfit) allegedly painted by Basquiat in 1982 and painted on corrugated cardboard. Via the Orlando Museum of Art.
But the fake works have nonetheless found champions in some art experts, including Basquiat researcher Jordana Moore Saggese and curator Diego Cortez, a founding member of the Basquiat Estate Authentication Committee who died in 2021. Both agreed that the works seemed legitimate (according to her affidavit, Moore Saggese in said she was paid $60,000 by the owners of the Basquiat artworks in 2017 to appraise the paintings). Handwriting expert James Blanco also found that the signatures on the works matched those of the artist.
Due to these factors, it appears that the management of the Orlando museum was convinced that everything was legitimate and the museum published an exhibition catalog with new essays on the 25 works, and touting a 500% increase in the attendance through the show.
Nevertheless, suspicion about the work appeared soon after the show opened in Orlando in February 2022. The main red flag was a FedEx logo on one of the pieces of cardboard – the company hadn’t introduced it until 1994, six years after the death of Basquiat. (The FBI Art Crime Team later confronted Barzman about one of the works, pointing out that one of the works had been painted on a mailing label bearing his name.)
The raid did not take place until June, less than a week before the end of the show, but the The FBI was investigating the case for years.
Installation view of “Heroes & Monsters: Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Thaddeus Mumford, Jr. Venice Collection” at the Orlando Museum of Art, 2022. Courtesy of the OMA.
It turned out that Mumford had told an FBI agent in 2014 that he had never purchased Basquiat or kept any in his storage unit. He even signed an FBI affidavit the year before his death in 2018, admitting that “at no time in the 1980s or at any other time did I meet Jean-Michel Basquiat, and at no time did I acquired or purchased paintings from him. .”
Following the seizure by the FBI of the suspicious works, the museum fired Aaron De Groft as Director and CEO. He has not been charged with any wrongdoing. THE institution under siege To formed a “working group” For help rebuild public confidence after the fiasco.
An archived version from Barzman’s auction website said it “specializes[d] in storage auctions, derelict properties, buying gold and silver, collectibles, Hollywood memorabilia, classic cars, vintage instruments and more,” noting that “since 2015, Michael is an auctioneer and appraiser of memorabilia and rare collectibles.
The FBI investigation into the case is still ongoing.
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