On June 24, the Federal Bureau of Investigations raided the Orlando Museum of Art and took away twenty-five paintings believed to have been made by Jean-Michel Basquiat after the works’ authenticity was questioned. The transport included all of the works from the “Heroes and Monsters: Jean-Michel Basquiat” exhibit, which opened at the Florida museum in February and was scheduled to run through June 30. The seizure took place while the visitors were in the institution. , with the museum closing its doors – and the exhibition – soon after.

According to multiple sources, officials were acting on credible information that at least one, if not all, of the works in the exhibit were forged. The paintings, all on salvaged cardboard, are believed to have been made around 1982 and purchased by now-deceased television writer Thad Mumford for $5,000 and placed in a warehouse, where they remained until rediscovered in 2012. when the storage unit was sized for non-payment of rent and its contents put up for auction. However, the New York Times notes that the search warrant used by the FBI’s Art Crime team during the raid contained Mumford’s assertion to a Bureau agent that he had never purchased or stored works by Basquiat. Additionally, one of the works is done on a fragment of a flattened box bearing the phrase “Line up the top of the FedEx shipping label here”, in a typeface declared by a designer who previously worked for the company. shipping as not having been used until 1994 – six years after Basquiat’s death.

The exhibit was due to travel to Italy after it closes on June 30. Representatives from the Orlando Museum of Art said the institution will continue to cooperate with authorities. “It is important to note that we still have not been led to believe that the museum has been or is the subject of an investigation,” museum spokeswoman Emilia Bourmas-Fry said in a statement. . “We continue to view our involvement only as a fact witness.”

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