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Likes almost everyone, sells great: »Dustheads« by Jean-Michel Basquiat (undated photo)
Photo: Christies/ dpa
The US federal police, the FBI, have confiscated 25 paintings believed to be by the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat on suspicion of forgery.
All of the works shown in the "Heroes and Monsters: Jean-Michel Basquiat" exhibition at the Orlando Museum of Art in the state of Florida are in the hands of investigators, a museum spokeswoman said on Saturday.
According to a report in the New York Times, previously unknown alleged Basquiat works were shown in the exhibition, which has been running since February.
According to the newspaper, one of the pictures painted on cardboard bore a package imprint on the back, which was not common until 1994 - six years after the artist's death.
According to the Times, the FBI investigators also found discrepancies in the information about the alleged previous owner of the paintings.
According to the report, the current owners of the works said Basquiat painted the pictures in 1982 and sold them to a screenwriter who has since died for $5,000.
He stored the works and later apparently forgot them.
1000 works in ten years
However, according to the Times, the screenwriter told an FBI officer during an interview in 2014 that he had never bought any Basquiat paintings in his life and was not aware of any Basquiat paintings in his storage container.
As the New York Times reported, the paintings in the Heroes & Monsters exhibition were found in a warehouse in Los Angeles in 2012, according to the museum and its owners.
Before the exhibition opened in February, the works were largely unknown.
The exhibition should have run until June 30, after which the works would have been exhibited in Italy.
Jean-Michel Basquiat is considered one of the most important and most expensive contemporary artists.
In just under ten years, the African American created around 1000 works - at the age of 27 he died of a heroin overdose.
kik/dpa
