Former Florida art museum director involved in Basquiat forged painting probe has died
ORLANDO, Fla. — Aaron De Groft, a former head of the Orlando Museum of Art who left the institution under a cloud in 2022 after it was raided by the FBI as part of an art fraud probe into more than two dozen forged Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings, has died. He was 59. Former Florida art museum director involved in Basquiat forged painting probe has died De Groft died last weekend after a brief illness, the Neptune Society, a cremation service provider, said without providing further details. The Orlando Sentinel also reported that his wife, Kathryn Lee De Groft, had submitted an obituary to the news outlet. “We were saddened to hear about the passing of Aaron De Groft,” the museum said in an emailed statement. “Our thoughts are with his family at this time of loss.” De Groft became executive director of the Orlando Museum of Art in 2021 following art museum administration jobs in Jacksonville, Sarasota, and Williamsburg, Virginia. De Groft negotiated to have the Orlando Museum of Art be the first institution to …
