Aaron De Groft, the former director of the Orlando Museum of Art (Florida), has died at the age of 59 following a short illness, an online obituary indicates.
If his obituary mentions Aaron de Groft’s positive actions at OMA, including “the defense of various exhibitions”it ignores the scandal of the fake Basquiat, for which he made the headlines of many newspapers in 2022 and was fired from the museum.
Appointed director of the Orlando Museum of Art (OMA) in 2021, he organized an exhibition dedicated to Basquiat a year later. But a few days after the start of the exhibition, an article from New York Times underlines the doubts of art professionals regarding the authenticity of the works presented. Aaron De Groft and the owners of the works assured that Basquiat’s paintings were produced in 1982 and then sold for $5,000 (around 4,800 euros) to a now deceased screenwriter, Thaddeus Mumford.
Following an FBI investigation, it emerged that the works were fake. The president of the museum’s board of directors, Cynthia Brumback, revealed the correspondence between Aaron de Groft and the art historian Jordana Moore Saggese, who was responsible for appraising the works and who expressed reservations about some of them . Aaron de Groft allegedly asked her to keep quiet about these reservations, under penalty of disclosing to the press the large amount she would have received for her expertise. He is dismissed in July 2022.
The scandal tarnished the reputation of the museum, which was placed under surveillance by the American Alliance of Museums and lost some of its donors. In 2023, the institution took Aaron De Groft to court. The former director then sued the museum for unfair dismissal and defamation. He is still named in three lawsuits stemming from this affair.
Prior to joining the Orlando Museum of Art, Aaron De Groft held several positions at other museums, including the Muscarelle Museum of Art in Williamsburg, Virginia, the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, and as at the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida.
Orlando Museum of Art.