Former auctioneer admits helping to create fake Basquiat paintings

Lianne Kolirin, CNN

A former auctioneer has admitted he helped create and verify 25 fake Basquiat paintings that were seized from the Orlando Museum of Art last year, according to authorities.

Michael Barzman, 45, admitted in court papers filed on Tuesday that he and another man — known only as J.F. — created the paintings that were passed off as undiscovered works of trailblazing artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, according to a press release from the US Attorney’s Office, Central District of California.

The fakes, some of which took just five minutes to create, were sold by the duo and made their way through the art market, authorities said.

The pieces formed the basis of an exhibition titled ‘Heroes and Monsters’ at the Florida gallery, which opened in February 2022. Four months later the FBI seized the fakes from the museum.

“Most of the featured works had, in fact, been created by [Barzman] and J.F.,” Barzman admitted in his plea agreement, said the release.

On Tuesday, Barzman was charged in federal court with making false statements to the FBI during an interview in August.

Reaching a deal, he subsequently agreed to plead guilty to the felony offense and made a series of admissions about the scam, the release adds.

“At the time of the interview, [Barzman] knew that he and J.F. had created the paintings and that his statements to the contrary were untruthful,” Barzman admitted.

While J.F. was predominantly responsible for creating the art, it fell to Barzman — a one-time auctioneer — to pass it off as genuine and sell it on.

“J.F. spent a maximum of 30 minutes on each image and as little as five minutes on others, and then gave them to [Barzman] to sell on eBay,” the plea agreement detailed, according to the release. “[Barzman] and J.F. agreed to split the money that they made from selling the fraudulent paintings. J.F. and [Barzman] created approximately 20-30 artworks by using various art materials to create colorful images on cardboard.”

Basquiat, known for his raw style with graffiti-like images and scrawled text, helped define New York’s East Village art scene in the 1980s before his death at age 27.

His artworks, which sell for millions of dollars, have been collected by celebrities including Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz, as well as Jay-Z and Beyoncé. The most expensive work of his that sold at auction was the 1982 “Untitled” which sold for $110.5 million in 2017.

According to authorities, Barzman and J.F. created the fakes in 2012 after hatching their plan.

At that time, Barzman ran an auction business which mainly bought and resold the contents of unpaid storage units. In a further admission, Barzman revealed he had tried to pass the work off as genuine by claiming in a notarized document that they had been found in a storage unit which had been rented by a well-known screenwriter.

Barzman later admitted that the story about the screenwriter’s storage “was a lie.”

He continued to deny making the paintings, even after he was shown the back of one of the seized pieces which showed a mailing label that had been painted over — with his name on it.

In a statement to CNN, Mark Elliott, chairman of the museum’s board of trustees, said: “Today we learned of the plea agreement entered in connection with the ongoing investigation involving last year’s ‘Heroes and Monsters’ exhibition as it was announced publicly. The Orlando Museum of Art awaits the investigation’s conclusion and hopes it brings justice to all victims.”

The statement went on to say that the museum has “recommitted itself to its mission to provide excellence in the visual arts.” As part of this process, it has taken a series of measures — including introducing “enhanced whistleblower protections” — and working with the American Alliance of Museums “to repair the institution’s standing.”

The statement continued: “The Museum is eager for the DOJ to continue its investigation and hold those who committed crimes responsible. When this investigation is closed, and charges are brought, the Museum looks forward to sharing our story regarding the works in question.”

Barzman has agreed to surrender to federal authorities for an as-yet unscheduled court appearance. Making false statements to a government agency carries a statutory maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.

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