It's either a sensation or a huge disgrace: The Orlando Museum of Art, one of the most important exhibition venues for modern art in Florida, is presenting 25 alleged works by Jean-Michel Basquiat that are said to have been missing for three decades.

The paintings, some of which are large, show the artist's symbolic language, the skulls and crowns that made him famous, the mix of materials and the neo-expressionist vitality.

But are they really real?

The American museum announces on its website that these images are rare and unique.

Careers and professional reputations now depend on the dispute over the authenticity of the works.

The museum's director, Aaron De Groft, believes in the authenticity of the works.

They are owned by two art dealers who describe themselves as "treasure hunters" and share ownership with celebrity attorney Pierce O'Donnell.

William Force and Lee Mangin look out for unrecognized masterpieces at auction.

In 2012 they bought the contents of a storage box - the late screenwriter Thad Mumford had not paid the rent for his stored belongings for too long.

Force and Mangin hit the foreclosure sale for around $15,000 and were convinced they had made a stunning catch when they discovered the artwork in the depot.

Basquiat, who died of a heroin overdose in 1988 at the age of 27, now holds the record for the most expensive painting by an American artist ever sold at auction.

In 2017, his 1982 painting Untitled with a skull and crossbones was sold by Sotheby's to Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa for a gross sum of $110.5 million.

A similar painting, "In This Case" from 1983, fetched $81 million at the auction house last year.

It was the second most expensive successful lot worldwide at an auction in 2021. But Force and Mangin have so far not been able to sell their finds for such millions.

That should change now, because the museum show could dispel doubts about the authenticity of the pictures - the two "treasure hunters" could become rich.

Like a receipt?

They have been hanging in the Orlando Museum of Arts under the title "Heroes and Monsters" since the middle of the month.

Basquiat is said to have created them while he was working in the Venice Beach, California home of art dealer Larry Gagosian in 1982.

But Gagosian says he didn't know anything about the creation of the 25 works and their sale to Mumford.

Basquiat is said to have received five thousand dollars in cash for her, which would be 14,000 today.

Such quick deals were not unusual for the young artist, Gagosian admits to the New York Times: "It always depended on how he wanted to be paid, in cash, with a barter, with clothes, or maybe he said pay my girlfriend a trip to Paris.”

Museum director De Groft wants to dispel doubts about the authenticity of the exhibits in his exhibition by referring to a poem that screenwriter Mumford is said to have typed on a typewriter in 1982 and that Basquiat signed with oil paint.

It talks about "25 paintings", "golden crowns" and the joy of being "no longer an outsider".

Like Basquiat, Mumford was one of the few successful African Americans in his industry at the time.

The poem is like a receipt, said De Groft.

The material also raises doubts

That doesn't keep observers from speculating and accusations.

The New York Times quoted an unnamed art dealer who worked with works by Basquiat as saying, "The way Basquiat arranges elements in the composition has an internal logic that these paintings lack." Committee that used to authenticate works by Basquiat no longer operates – similar to Andy Warhol's art panel, it ceased operations after litigation.

Other experts who could examine the authenticity have so far been reluctant.

Auction house Sotheby's declined to comment, and Gagosian called the authenticity dubious.

The material on which some of the alleged Basquiats are painted also raises doubts: FedEx shipping boxes.

New York Times writer Brett Sokol contacted brand designer Lindon Leader, who was tasked with redesigning the FedEx logo in 1994.

One of the supposed Basquiat pictures shows the inscription “Stick the shipping label here” on the back.

Leader says the typeface was not used in 1982.

"He should know," Sokol comments - and only points out that independent, officially commissioned experts have to assess the supposed Basquiats.