Former CEO at center of fake Basquiats scandal countersues museum, claiming he is being scapegoated

By MIKE SCHNEIDER
Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A former executive director of a Florida museum which was raided last year by the FBI over an exhibit of what turned out to be forged Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings is filing counterclaims against the museum. Former CEO Aaron De Groft says in court papers that the board chairwoman and outside lawyers for the Orlando Museum of Art had signed off on the exhibit. He says that was even after the FBI had subpoenaed the museum’s records over the exhibit in July 2021. De Groft said he was being made a scapegoat.