The former boss of the Orlando Museum of Art, who was fired over an exhibit of “counterfeit” artwork, has filed a countersuit against the museum, claiming he was wrongly made a scapegoat to deflect bad publicity from the scandal turn.
Aaron de Groft was fired as director and CEO of the museum in June 2022, four days after the FBI seized 25 disputed works of art attributed to the late painter Jean-Michel Basquiat.
De Groft personally championed and oversaw the Basquiat exhibition, titled Heroes & Monsters, and earlier this year the 99-year-old museum sued him, accusing the once-renowned art expert of shredding the institution’s reputation have left behind.
On Tuesday, De Groft filed a counterclaim in Florida’s Ninth Circuit Court, accusing the museum of wrongful termination, defamation and breach of contract, and insisting he could prove the authenticity of the disputed paintings in a jury trial.
“This is the first time I’ve actually spoken out,” de Groft said in a telephone interview with DailyMail.com. ‘I kept my head down. I faced slings and arrows and humiliation. My reputation was destroyed. My personal life has been very, very difficult, for my wife and my family.”
The disgraced trustee said he is “going to war to regain my good name, my professional status and personal and professional exemption.”
Former Orlando Museum of Art CEO Aaron de Groft has filed a countersuit against the museum, alleging he was wrongly made a scapegoat in the fake Basquiat scandal
Jean-Michel Basquiat, who lived and worked in New York City, found success in the 1980s as part of the Neo-Expressionist movement
De Groft, an art historian with three degrees and 35 years of experience in art museum management, said he had been kicked out of his chosen field and had been unable to find work after the scandal.
An OMA spokesperson told DailyMail.com: ‘On the advice of counsel, the Orlando Museum of Art will not comment on this ongoing litigation.’
Basquiat, who lived and worked in New York City, found success in the 1980s as part of the Neo-Expressionist movement.
He tragically died of a heroin overdose in 1988, aged just 27, and after his death his works skyrocketed in value.
The extraordinary dispute at OMA centers on a batch of alleged Basquiat paintings allegedly discovered in 2012 in a storage unit belonging to Thaddeus Q. Mumford Jr, a television writer and close friend of Basquiat.
Questions about the work’s authenticity arose almost as soon as it was discovered, sparking intense debate as the treasure, if authentic, would be worth some $100 million.
The New York Times first reported that the cardboard used in at least one of the pieces contained a FedEx font that was not used by the company until 1994, about six years after Basquiat’s death.
But in an email to DailyMail.com, De Groft said the FedEx font assessment was incorrect and inaccurately reported in the media.
“I have a lot of evidence that what was reported about the font was wrong. The font on the box is not what was reported and we have a forensic report that also says what the font on the box actually is and was in use from the 1970s,” de Groft wrote.
De Groft had personally championed and supervised the OMA’s Basquiat exhibition, entitled Heroes & Monsters. The entrance to the exhibition can be seen above
One of the allegedly forged works of art from the so-called Mumford Collection can be seen above
De Groft examines one of the disputed works of art. In an email after viewing the Mumford collection for the first time, he called them “astonishing masterpieces” and “the purist form of Basquiat”
The FBI raided OMA in June 2022 and seized more than two dozen paintings attributed to artist Jean-Michel Basquiat after questions about their authenticity.
In his new lawsuit, De Groft emphasizes that his “conclusion that the 25 Basquiats are authentic will be proven at trial, dealing a well-deserved, fatal blow to OMA’s lawsuit.”
The curator accuses his former employer of “deliberately destroying his excellent reputation” and “making him a scapegoat for the seizure of the 25 paintings by the FBI.”
He claimed that the museum made him the “fall guy” after the negative publicity surrounding the FBI raid, falsely accusing him of deliberate attempts to pass off forged works of art for the exhibition as genuine.
“Actions have consequences, and deliberately malicious acts are severely punished. An Orlando jury will teach OMA a lesson she will never forget,” de Groft wrote in his countersuit, in which he represents himself without an attorney.
In April, former Los Angeles auctioneer Michael Barzman pleaded guilty to federal charges of making false statements to the FBI, admitting that he and an accomplice created fake artwork and falsely attributed the paintings to Basquiat.
That appears to resolve the matter, although the group that owns the 25 paintings on display at OMA has accused Barzman of lying about forging them.
The ownership group has alleged in lawsuits that Barzman did indeed discover a batch of genuine Basquiats, but also likely forged a separate batch of nine “pathetically amateurish” counterfeits sold in Oslo.
“As two renowned Basquiat experts have stated, the individuals who painted these obvious forgeries could not (and did not) paint our 25 paintings,” the group said.
Attorney Pierce O’Donnell (above) purchased a stake in six of the 25 works and hired several experts to assess whether the paintings were genuine
Before the FBI raid, an exhibition is on display at the Orlando Museum of Art, reportedly by artist Jean-Michel Basquiat
This untitled 1982 painting, reportedly by artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, is on display at the Orlando Museum of Art prior to the raid
Intentionally selling fake art is a federal crime. The paintings’ owners have previously said they hoped to sell the works, and the Orlando exhibition would have provided a major boost in visibility and credibility.
The works in question came to light in 2012, when Barzman, a small Los Angeles auctioneer, says he bought them at a storage unit auction after Mumford fell behind on payments for the unit.
Barzman sold the 25 paintings for about $15,000 through William Force, an art and antiques dealer, and Leo Mangan, a retired salesman.
Force and Mangan transferred their ownership rights to six of the works in 2017 to the Basquiat Venice Collection Group (BVCG), a consortium that is known to include attorney Pierce O’Donnell.
Mumford, the owner of the storage unit where the art was allegedly found, reportedly told investigators that he had never owned any Basquiat art and that the pieces were not in the unit the last time he was there.
However, BVCG has insisted that before Mumford died in 2018, he told at least six people that he owned 25 Basquiat paintings.
De Groft told DailyMail.com that the scandal had overshadowed his life’s work and successes at OMA, where he boosted attendance and ticket sales.
“I’m not looking for a pat on the back, but I’m tired of getting shot in the face,” he said.
“All these art bloggers have become so mean. Everyone is an expert, while actually – and this is a professional term – they know nothing at all.’