The FBI has seized 25 contested Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings
The FBI has raided the Orlando Museum of Art’s exhibition Heroes & Monsters: Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Thaddeus Mumford, Jr. Venice Collection, seizing all 25 of the show’s paintings. The raid came amid questions regarding the authenticity of the works, all of which are painted on cardboard and range from ten inches to just under five feet.
Speaking to the New York Times in February, the Orlando Museum’s director and chief executive Aaron De Groft said that the paintings had been created in 1982 and sold by Basquiat that same year to screenwriter Thad Mumford for a sum of $5,000. The sale allegedly took place while Basquiat was living and working beneath Larry Gagosian’s home in Venice, California, although Gagaosian himself has said that he finds the scenario “highly unlikely”.
The paintings were auctioned off in 2012 after Mumford failed to pay the bill on the storage unit in which they were being kept. They were subsequently purchased by one William Force for $15,000. Before Mumford’s death in 2018, he told The Times, “I’ve absolutely no doubt these are Basquiats. My reputation is at stake as well.”
Now, the authenticity of the works is under investigation. One of the most glaring pieces of evidence to suggest they are not the work of Basquiat is that one of the works was painted on a piece of Fed Ex cardboard bearing the phrase: “Align top of FedEx Shipping Label here”. The typeface used on the label was not used by Fed Ex until 1994, 12 years after the painting is said to have been made and a full six years after Basquiat’s death.
Contrastingly, Diego Cortez, a celebrated curator and early Basquiat supporter, signed documents in 2018-19 asserting that he believed the 25 paintings were indeed real Basquiats. A forensic investigation by handwriting expert James Blanco also confirmed the legitimacy of the signatures at the bottom of the painting. Jordana Moore Saggese, an art history professor and author of Reading Basquiat: Exploring Ambivalence in American Art, vouched for the authenticity of the paintings before distancing herself from the claim and the investigation. The New York Times reported that Saggese was paid $60,000 for her work before she contacted the museum to request that she no longer be associated with the exhibition.
Following her request, De Groft sent an e-mail, saying: “You want us to put out there you got $60 grand to write this? Ok then. Shut up. You took the money. Stop being holier than thou,” before adding: “Do your academic thing and stay in your limited lane.”
It’s also been discovered that, in 2017, Mumford signed a statement saying that “at no time in the 1980s or at any other time did I meet with Jean-Michel Basquiat, and at no time did I acquire or purchase any paintings by him”, putting the origin story of the Heroes & Monsters into question. FBI agent Elizabeth Rivas, who interviewed Mumford in 2014, has said that she believes: “Mumford never purchased Basquiat artwork and was unaware of any Basquiat artwork being in his storage locker”. The investigation is ongoing.
