ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The Orlando Museum of Artwork and the property of its former director, who died final month, have agreed to drop lawsuits towards one another that arose from the 2022 FBI seizure of two dozen solid work that have been falsely attributed to artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
The museum mentioned in an announcement Tuesday that the dismissal ends all litigation between it and the property of its former director, Aaron De Groft, who died Jan. 18. The museum had accused De Groft of not fulfilling his fiduciary responsibility to the museum by championing the exhibit, whereas he claimed that his firing was unjust.
“It is OMA’s sincere hope that this step will allow OMA to continue forward with its mission in partnership with its valued constituencies,” the museum mentioned.
De Groft negotiated to have the museum be the primary establishment to show greater than two dozen artworks mentioned to have been present in an previous storage locker many years after Basquiat’s 1988 demise from a drug overdose.
There have been persistent questions concerning the authenticity of the works, culminating within the FBI’s 2022 raid of the museum. In 2023, former Los Angeles auctioneer Michael Barzman agreed to plead responsible to federal fees of creating false statements to the FBI, admitting that he and an confederate had created the faux paintings and falsely attributed the work to Basquiat.
