Museum attendees present at the Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibition at the Orlando Museum of Art were escorted out of the building on Friday due to an F.B.I. raid. Inside the museum, agents removed all 25 pieces of art from the walls.
The exhibition opened in February, and the artwork’s authenticity was soon called into question. According to the 41-page search warrant obtained by The New York Times, F.B.I. investigations that began after the pieces of Basquiat paintings were discovered in a storage unit in Los Angeles in 2012, revealed “false information relating to the alleged prior ownership of the paintings.”
The document also mentioned “attempts to sell the paintings using false provenance, and bank records show possible solicitation of investment in artwork that is non-authentic .” Art consultant Todd Levin told Artnet News:
“These fake works have been around for some time and I’ve been aware of them. By quick visual inspection, they are immediately problematic. It’s clear to anybody who has expertise about Basquiat’s oeuvre built up from decades of experience handling it, dealing with it, looking at it, and having known the artist that these are, without a doubt, not by the artist.”
In a statement to the Times, museum spokesperson Emilia Bourmas-Fry stated that the museum will continue to work with the FBI: “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. We continue to see our involvement purely as a fact witness.”