Aaron De Groft, Ex-Orlando Museum Director Enmeshed in Basquiat Forgery Scandal, Dies
151Jan. 22, 2025
Aaron De Groft, the onetime director and CEO of theOrlando Museum of Art(OMA) who became the subject of an FBI investigation over his involvement with the museum’s display of fake Jean-Michel Basquiat works, has died at fifty-nine following a brief illness, according to anonline obituary. De Groft had been working to clear his name in the wake of a scandal that saw him fired and sued by his former employer.
Arriving to OMA in 2021, De Groft in 2022 gained the attention of federal authorities after aNew York Timesarticle questioned the provenance and authenticity of a group of works on view in an exhibition titled “Heroes & Monsters: Jean-Michel Basquiat.” The FBI’s Art Crimes Teamraidedthe show, and the twenty-five works on view were found to be inauthentic, at least one having been rendered on the back of a FedEx box bearing a typeface not in use by the shipper until years after the famed neo-expressionist artist’s 1988 death. A Los Angeles–based auctioneeradmittedto playing a significant role in the forgery, hiring an artist to create the works, some of which were dashed off in as few as five minutes.
The museum sued De Groft in August 2023, claiming he had destroyed its reputation and that he had intended to profit off the exhibition. De Groft countersued several months later, accusing the museum of wrongful termination and defamation. OMA by last January was reported to be in dire financial straits, having drained its financial reserves to pay publicists and attorneys even as donors faded away. The Orlando Weekly reports that De Groft is still named in three pending lawsuits connected with the kerfuffle.
De Groft’s well publicized transgressions were mentioned nowhere in his obituary, which instead focused on his previous leadership roles—at the Muscarelle Museum of Art in Williamsburg, Virginia; the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida; and the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida—and on his positive accomplishments at OMA, where, his family wrote, he “worked tirelessly to expand the museum’s reach and inclusivity. He championed diverse exhibitions, broadened membership, and advocated for improved employee benefits and wages, all while maintaining his focus on the arts as a force for education and community connection.”