The members of the board of trustees of the Orlando Museum of Artwork (OMA) fired the establishment’s director and chief govt, Aaron De Groft, on 28 June amid a scandal surrounding a Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibition on the museum that ended abruptly on 24 June when the FBI raided it and seized 25 work amid questions on their authenticity.
In an announcement, OMA board chair Cynthia Brumback says the trustees are “extraordinarily involved about a number of points with regard to the [Basquiat] exhibition, together with the current revelation of an inappropriate e-mail correspondence despatched to academia in regards to the authentication of a few of the paintings within the exhibition”. Brumback provides, “Now we have launched an official course of to handle these issues, as they’re inconsistent with the values of this establishment, our enterprise requirements, and our requirements of conduct.”
The e-mail correspondence in query was included in an affidavit filed to safe the FBI’s search warrant, and was cited by the New York Occasions. In an e-mail, De Groft threatened an educational (subsequently recognized as College of Maryland artwork historian Jordana Moore Saggese) who was in search of to distance herself from a report she was commissioned to put in writing assessing the authenticity of the works in Heroes & Monsters: Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Thaddeus Mumford, Jr. Venice Assortment. After Saggese, who was reportedly paid $60,000 for her report, requested that her title not be tied to the exhibition, De Groft wrote, “You need us to place on the market you bought $60 grand to put in writing this? Okay then. Shut up. You took the cash. Cease being holier than thou.” He added, “Do your tutorial factor and keep in your restricted lane.”
Issues concerning the authenticity of the purported Basquiat works in Heroes & Monsters had been first made public in a New York Occasions article in February. On the time, De Groft advised the newspaper: “My fame is at stake as properly… And I’ve completely little doubt these are Basquiats.”
De Groft was appointed to guide the OMA in February 2021, following a 14-year stint on the helm of the Muscarelle Museum of Artwork on the Faculty of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Previous to that he held positions on the Ringling Museum of Artwork and the Cummer Museum of Artwork and Gardens, each in Florida.
In her assertion, Brumback prompt future programming shall be impacted by De Groft’s ouster, noting that “we’re making some new choices with regard to imminent exhibitions and can announce these plans at a later time”.
The OMA’s chief monetary officer Joann Walfish will function its interim chief.
