Four days after the FBI seized all 25 exhibits at the Basquiat exhibit, Heroes and Monsters, suspected of being counterfeit, the Orlando Museum of Art board of directors acted and fired its director, Aaron De Groft, effective immediately.

According to a statement by the board of directors, the trustees of the private museum in Florida are "extremely concerned" not only because of the dubious origin of the alleged originals by Jean-Michel Basquiat, one of which has a FedEx package sticker on the back, which only appeared after circulated after the artist's death.

Added to this is the Director's "inappropriate email correspondence" brought to light by the FBI.

Ursula Scheer

Editor in the Feuilleton.

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De Groft has threatened in writing by an art historian identified by The New York Times as Jordana Moore Saggese of the University of Maryland.

As the owners of the alleged Basquiat paintings, the art dealers William Force and Lee Mangin hired her as an appraiser to confirm the authenticity of the works.

The scientist, however, refused to be named in connection with the show.

In the letter, which is now costing him dearly, De Groft asks whether she wants it to be public that she received $60,000 for the report, and is another detail of an ever-growing scandal.

Works by the painter Basquiat, who died of a heroin overdose in 1988 at the age of 27, are sold at extremely high prices on the art market.

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

In 2021, the auction house sold "In This Case" from 1983 for $81 million.

Presentations of works of art can also serve to legitimize them for the art market.

The Basquiats on display in Orlando are said to come from a storage box that belonged to the estate of the late screenwriter Thad Mumford.

He, in turn, is said to have bought the paintings from the artist himself in the 1980s for $5,000.

But Mumford signed a letter in the presence of federal officials in 2017, saying he had never met Basquiat or purchased any of his pictures.