South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
OMA enhances whistleblower rules
Change comes as ‘Basquiat’ art is proved to be fake
The Orlando Museum of Art has beefed up whistleblower protections for its staff as it continues working to restore its reputation in light of the revelation that works in its doomed “Heroes & Monsters” exhibition were unquestionably fakes.
The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday revealed that a Los Angeles auctioneer admitted he helped create fake artworks attributed to Jean-Michel Basquiat that had been displayed at the museum last year.
The announcement did not indicate the investigation was over, and a former member of the FBI’s Art Crime Team told the Orlando Sentinel the investigators are likely still determining who else might have known the art wasn’t authentic.
Meanwhile, Central Florida observers are watching to see what comes next and how the museum will rebound from this latest blow.
“People are like, ‘enough is enough,’ ” said Snap! Orlando gallerist Patrick Kahn, who has been discussing the case with colleagues around the world and monitoring the art scene’s reaction.
“Now there’s no doubt we’ve been really duped … it’s bad.”
The museum issued a statement Wednesday on behalf of board Chairman Mark Elliott that acknowledged the announcement in California, saying “it awaits the investigation’s conclusion and hopes it brings justice to all victims.”
It also made a brief mention of changes it has carried out, including “adopting new personnel policies with enhanced whistleblower protections.”
The Orlando Museum of Art commissioned an internal probe, conducted by Akerman law firm after the FBI seized the fake art from the exhibition in June, but its findings remain unknown to the public.
Although Elliott had pledged to be transparent, the museum has remained tight-lipped for months over its findings.
Re q u e s t s to speak directly with Elliott or other museum officials were declined Wednesday.
In its statement the museum also reiterated that board members were receiving governance training and acknowledged it was working with the American Alliance of Museums to repair the institution’s standing. That national organization placed OMA on probation in the wake of the Basquiat scandal.
“Where such actions can be disclosed publicly, they have been and will continue to be,” the museum’s statement read.
Board members first began hearing about the internal investigation in November.
On Tuesday the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California filed court papers announcing a plea deal with Michael Barzman, in which he admitted to helping create up to 30 pieces of art and then market them as created by Basquiat, an acclaimed contemporary artist who died in 1988.
The documents also say Barzman made up the convoluted backstory of the art — how it was found in an abandoned storage locker that had belonged to an Emmy-winning screenwriter — according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The plea deal was first reported by The New York Times on Tuesday.
Former museum director Aaron De Groft, who pushed the storage-locker story and championed the exhibition, has not been implicated in any fraud, according to The Times, which said the FBI’s investigation is ongoing.
At the time of the FBI raid, museum employees said he had dismissed any objections to the exhibit made by staff members who saw red flags in the artworks’ origin story — a situation that stronger whistle-blowing measures might have prevented.
Barzman said he worked closely with another man, identified only as J.F. in the court records, who quickly created the fakes. Barzman, 45, faces up to five years in prison.
“J. F. spent a maximum of 30 minutes on each image and as little as five minutes on others, and then gave them to [Barzman] to sell on eBay,” according to the felony plea agreement. “[Barzman] and J.F. agreed to split the money that they made from selling the fraudulent paintings.
“J.F. and [Barzman] created approximately 20-30 artworks by using various art materials to create colorful images on cardboard.”
The FBI’s probe likely isn’t finished, and investigators are working to determine whether others were in on the scam, said Bob Wittman, who created the FBI’s Art Crime Team and is now an art security consultant.
“It’s a good piece of investigation, so we’ll see how it plays out from here,” he said. “I am glad to see they are coming up with something in the case rather than just seizing artworks.”
Fraudulent art cases are nothing new, though in recent years they have appeared more frequently in the headlines.
“There’s a long history of it,” said Ilenia Colón Mendoza, a professor of art history at the University of Central Florida.
“We have documented incidences i n Imperial China.”
In recent times a German museum known for its Russian Avant-Garde art discovered multiple works in its collection had been falsely attributed. It chose to present them alongside verified work in an exhibit titled “Russian Avant-Garde at the Museum Ludwig: Original and Fake.”
In 2018 a French museum dedicated to the works of painter Étienne Terrus discovered that more than half its collection consisted of fakes.
In February Palm Beach art dealer Daniel Elie Bouaziz pleaded guilty to money laundering as part of his sale of counterfeit works by pop artist Andy Warhol. And last month police in Canada seized more than 1,000 paintings in their investigation into a forgery ring of works by artist Norval Morrisseau.
What sets the Orlando Museum of Art situation apart is the amount of money at stake.
The works, had they been authentic, were likely to sell for $100 million, according to expert estimates.
Colón Mendoza said there were multiple reasons why a museum could end up displaying fraudulent art — lack of time, preparedness, pressure — and the excitement of a big “find.”
“I think sometimes the enthusiasm for something to be authentic supersedes the responsibility to the public,” she said.
But now the museum needs to reestablish credibility with the public — and that starts with transparency, said Mark Brewer, president and CEO of the Central Florida Foundation, which provides support to nonprofits.
“First of all, you have to get all the ‘dirty laundry’ out — you just have to,” he said. “You can’t expect people to think you’re working on a problem if you won’t say what the problem was.”
That’s the discussion that Kahn sees art professionals having.
“They have the results [of their internal investigation] and they have not released them, so they are hiding something,” said Kahn, who added that was a common school of thought.
“It’s irresponsible of them to cover it up. And it shows they cannot be trusted.”
Since the scandal broke, the museum’s top three leaders have all departed.
De Groft was fired shortly after the FBI raid. Former board of trustees Chairperson Cynthia Brumback stepped down in August before departing the museum entirely in December. Chief curator Hansen Mulford retired after 42 years with the museum in March.
Brewer said he has faith that the museum’s trustees are “working as hard as they can” and called for other organizations to take note.
“This is a warning shot in the air to all nonprofits in the region,” he said.
“This is one of those moments that’s a reminder that they are owned by the public. Make sure your governance boards are in place.”
Follow at facebook.com/ matthew.j.palm or email at mpalm@orlandosentinel. com.