The museum raid was conducted by the FBI’s Art Crime Team after a nine-year criminal investigation into the authenticity of the supposed Basquiat paintings. (Credit: sergign/Adobe Stock)
Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and Great American Insurance Company have asked a court to block a $19.7 million claim for paintings taken from a museum that turned out to be fake.
According to the Associated Press, more than two dozen paintings, supposedly by artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, were seized in an FBI raid at the Orlando Museum of Art in 2022. Because these paintings were on loan from their owner, the museum added them as an additional insured on its fine arts insurance policy. When the owners filed a claim on the seized paintings, both insurance companies argued they were not covered under the policy because they were not authentic.
The owners argued that the claim should be covered since they acted in good faith, and the insurance companies didn’t consider the paintings’ authenticity when they were added to the policy.
“Defendants do not have any valid claim to proceeds from this ‘loss’ since there is no loss to begin with,” the insurance companies said in court papers filed late last year. “The paintings have not been damaged or destroyed.”
The museum raid was conducted by the FBI’s Art Crime Team after a years-long criminal investigation into the authenticity of the supposed Basquiat paintings.
In 2023, auctioneer Michael Barzman agreed to plead guilty to making false statements to the FBI and admitted that he and an accomplice had made the fake artwork and tried to pass it off as Basquiat’s work. Barzman and the accomplice formulated a story about the artwork being discovered in a storage locker; long after the New York City artist had died in 1988 at the age of 27.
While questions about the works’ authenticity were immediate, there were notable details that gave away the fact that they were frauds. For example, one painting utilized cardboard from a FedEx box that included typeface the company didn’t use until 1994 — several years after Basquiat’s death.
The insurers filed their lawsuit in Orlando state court, but the owners of the paintings have requested it be moved to federal court because the parties are in different states. However, Liberty Mutual and Great American argued in court papers that the case should be returned to state court since other litigation surrounding the paintings is happening there.
This related litigation includes a suit filed by the museum against its former executive director, Aaron De Groft, for fraud and breach of contract. De Groft has countersued, claiming wrongful termination and defamation.
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