A former head of the Orlando Museum of Art who left the museum in 2022 after it was raided by the FBI as part of a probe into several forged Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings has died.

Aaron De Groft, who came to central Florida to raise the profile of Orlando Museum of Art — but then embroiled the institution in an FBI fraud investigation over purported Basquiat paintings — has died.

Following successful stints at museums in Virginia and on Florida’s Gulf Coast, De Groft’s career became mired in the Basquiat fakes fiasco

The former director of the Orlando Museum of Art, Aaron De Groft, has died. De Groft was at the center of a scandal when the FBI investigated him in relation to potentially fake Jean-Michael Basquiat artworks.

Aaron De Groft, the former CEO of the Orlando Museum of Art whose tenure was ultimately defined by a Basquiat forgery scandal, died on January 18 at 59. According to an obituary published on Monday, De Groft died after a brief illness.