The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has seized 25 works by Jean-Michel Pasquit and exhibited in Florida, the authenticity of which appears to be in doubt, we learned Saturday from the Orlando Museum of Art.
The museum, which exhibited them, complied Friday with the FBI’s request for access to the exhibition. Heroes and Monsters: Jean-Michel PascualAnd the missions are now in the hands of the US Federal Police, the museum’s spokeswoman Emilia Bormas-Fry told AFP.
“It should be noted that we do not understand that the museum is under investigation,” he said.
The exhibition was due to end on June 30, and the museum will continue to collaborate with the FBI, a spokesman added. The Federal Police did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the AFP.
Until the exhibition opens in February, little is known about the target works drawn on the stored packaging. The New York Times, It revealed the FBI action on Friday.
According to the newspaper, one of the works was drawn on the back of a collection that read “Sort here on top of the FedEx label”, but only the font used by the shipping team. Fast FedEx has been added since 1994, many years after the death of six artists TimesCiting a former FedEx employee.
The newspaper claims that the FBI seized the works on the basis of a 41-page affidavit alleging “false information relating to the previous owner of the works”.
The investigation revealed “bank statements showing attempts to sell works using false documents based on their source and potential calls for investment in unreliable art”.
The owners of the works – an art dealer and retiree – and museum director Aaron de Croft claim that Basquiat painted them in 1982 and today sells them for $ 5,000 to a television screenwriter. Now dead, Dad Mumford.
According to them, Mr. Mumford kept them in a storage room and forgot about them for 30 years.
But in the FBI document, Elizabeth Rivas, an agent who specializes in smuggling works of art, was arrested in 2014 by Mr. He met with Mumford and stated that he had not purchased any of Pasquit’s works and that he did not appear to have any works. Basquiat works in his storage room.
If approved, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 25 works would be worth up to $ 100 million.
