Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Early Artistic Works: A Legal Conundrum

The authentication of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s early artistic works created during the time he lived on the streets of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, from the mid-1970’s to the autumn of 1981, as a struggling young artist, is virtually impossible. His estate’s refusal to assist anyone in the authentication of these works is fostered by their refusal to publish a formal catalogue raisonné, and the disbanding of the Basquiat Authentication Committee in September 2012, in part, due to the high costs and risks associated with lawsuits. This is baffling because the Estate is known to be extremely litigious. Managed by the artist’s sisters, the estate aggressively pursues lawsuits regarding any attempt to authenticate any work, no matter how much proof there is that he created it. The estate even sued Alexis Adler, Basquiat’s roommate from mid-1979 to mid-1980.^[1]

There are many legal cases related to art. Some of them have been heard in the US Supreme Court, but many more have been decided in lower courts, both state and federal. There are several situations that can lead to a civil or criminal case related to art. Some typical examples are forgery, contract issues, and copyright. There are also legal cases that involve the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of expression. Most legal cases involving visual art, such as paintings, photography, and sculptures, were heard in trial and appellate courts, both state and federal. However, an example of a US Supreme Court case was Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith, 598 U.S. 508 (2023).^[2]

Jean-Michel Basquiat was one of many well-known artists who were connected to several legal issues. Basquiat was born in New York City in 1960. His mother was Puerto Rican, and his father was Haitian. Jean-Michel Basquiat had an interest in art from a young age and first became known for graffiti he created in the 1970’s on subways and buildings. He also sold T-shirts, small paintings, drawings, and postcards containing his artwork to tourists. In 1981, his art was shown in a group show and was widely appreciated. His art, in the Neo-Expressionism style, was being sold for up to $50,000. His career included collaborations with the famous artist Andy Warhol, and he also had art shows in other countries, in Europe, Japan, and Africa.

Unfortunately, Basquiat had personal problems involving drugs, and he died of a drug overdose at the age of 27. His art continued to be highly valued after his death, and one painting was purchased by a Japanese billionaire in 2017 for $110.5 million.^[3]

When one researches the literature covering the timeline of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s brief professional artistic career, one finds that the established literature is replete with works from late 1981 until his untimely death. Very little attention is given to the initial phase of his early artistic career, and the works he created during the period when he lived on and off the streets of the Lower East Side of Manhattan from the mid-1970s until the autumn of 1981, when Dr. Annina Nosei provided Jean-Michel with his first art studio complete with professional-grade artistic substrates, media, and supplies.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9]}

The established publications of Basquiat’s life primarily contain works produced after he began to gain fame in 1982, following the sellout of his solo exhibitions at Dr. Nosei’s gallery in SoHo, New York, and at Larry Gagosian’s first Basquiat exhibition in Los Angeles. After these two successful shows, Basquiat was firmly established as a rising star of the international Neo‑Expressionist market.^[10][11]

Interestingly, a collection of drawings by Jean-Michel made on paper with crayons or markers appears in these works made in the mid-1970s to early1981, while Basquiat was still living on the streets of Lower Manhattan. This collection contains many of the motifs and symbols Basquiat used in his works after becoming famous. Yet, they are never cited by the authors of “Jean-Michel Basquiat 1981: The Studio of the Street” as being early works by Basquiat.^[12]

A book entitled “BASQUIAT: BOOM FOR REAL, is an important resource for understanding the formative years of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Although this text focuses on his pre-fame years (1978–1981) in NYC’s Downtown scene, offering critical insight into his transition from teenage graffiti artist SAMO© to a renowned fine artist, it fails to discuss the post cards, T-shirts, paintings, drawings and miscellaneous works Basquiat created and sold on the streets of the Lower East Side in order to live and support himself during his early career.^[13]

Basquiat’s NOTEBOOKS further document his early motifs and iconography. Within nearly three hundred of its pages appear recurring symbols, including three-pointed crowns, hearts with crosses, tepees, and references to “FAMOUS NEGRO ATHLETES,” written with his characteristic three‑bar letter “E” and “V” shaped U.  Similar motifs appear on a door in Alexis Adler’s East 12th Street apartment, as depicted in BASQUIAT BEFORE BASQUIAT: EAST 12TH STREET.^[14][15]

In the text entitled: “JEAN‑MICHEL BASQUIAT 1981: The Studio of the Street,” are offered vignettes of Basquiat’s early life, including the Mudd Club scene, his circle of collaborators, and his relationship with Andy Warhol. Notably, the section POSTCARDS, 1979 describes Basquiat’s use of a color photocopier at Jamie Canvas, an art supply store on Spring Street used to produce postcards which were sold in the store for one dollar, including Sunglasses 2 in 1979.^[16]

Finally, a book written by the estate’s members entitled “Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure”, published in April 2022, covering Jean-Michel’s life and the artwork owned by the family, only presents undated works he did as a child and young teenager before he left his home for good, or work he created after he became famous in late 1982.^[17]

No mention is made in “KING PLEASURE” of Jean-Michel’s life on the streets of the Lower East Side of Manhattan from the mid-1970s until the Autumn of 1981. In addition, no reference to the many works he created in order to live and survive as a young, penniless, struggling, starving artist is presented.  It was like Jean-Michel did not exist to his family until he became famous, which is puzzling, because Jean-Michel’s father, Gerard Basquiat, is quoted during an interview as saying: “When he was about 15 or 16, I remember seeing him on Fourth Street by the basketball court sitting on the floor and selling his works to tourists. They were drawings, different types, I have a tenant who bought one from him for ten bucks”.^[18]

Taken together, these references portray Basquiat primarily as a successful, established artist after 1981. They largely omit the years he spent penniless on the streets of the Lower East Side, scavenging materials and creating works from rudimentary substrates in order to survive.

One notable exception is Basquiat Before BASQUIAT: East 12th Street 1979–1980, published by the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver.^[19]

Works created in the East 12th Street apartment display motifs including a three‑pointed crown, heart‑and‑cross symbols, small cars, and the phrase “FAMOUS NEGRO ATHLETES.” Despite substantial evidence that Basquiat lived and worked there in 1979–1980, attempts to authenticate these works through the Basquiat Estate have been denied—an outcome that remains puzzling (14). One might ask: What is the Estate trying to hide?

As has occurred with many well-known painters, after Basquiat’s death, the issue of the authenticity of some of his paintings formed the basis of some disputes. This led to a number of legal actions.

One incident that led to several legal actions occurred when there was a question of whether certain artworks by Basquiat were authentic. In 2022, there was an exhibition called “Heroes and Monsters,” at the Orlando Museum of Art, in Orlando, Florida, which included artwork by Jean-Michel Basquiat. At one point, the authenticity of the paintings was questioned, and there was an FBI raid of the museum, in which 25 artworks were seized.

The museum sued Aaron De Groft, who was the former executive director and CEO of the museum. This caused some damage to the reputation of the museum. De Groft countersued and claimed that he was being wrongfully blamed and that the art was authentic. However, after Mr. De Groft passed away, the legal proceedings were ended.

The situation started in the following way. Apparently, in 1982, Basquiat sold several paintings to Thad Mumford, a television screenwriter, for $5,000. Thirty years later, they were found in a storage locker that Mumford had been renting but did not pay for. An art dealer, William Force, bought the stored art for $15,000. He arranged with De Groft to show the works, without showing them to him first. Mumford stated to an FBI agent that he had never bought any works by Basquiat. Several experts examined the paintings, and some of them believed that they were not by Basquiat. One reason for this was that a painting included a certain FedEx logo that had not yet existed at the time the painting was supposedly created by Basquiat.^[20]

An auctioneer, Michael Barzman, and an associate admitted in a plea deal to having created the paintings themselves. Barzman was sentenced to 500 hours of community service, a $500 fine, and three years of probation. He had many health struggles and was remorseful for his actions, which was one reason he was not sentenced to prison.^[21]

Another legal matter that arose from this incident was between two insurance companies and the owners of the paintings. The owners of the paintings had loaned them to the museum, but then, as stated above, they were seized by the FBI and found to be forgeries. The two insurance companies involved, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and Great American Insurance Company, believed that the owners should have known that the paintings were not authentic and of no value. They said that the insurance does not cover counterfeit art.

Other legal matters connected with Basquiat were not about suspected forgery, but about other issues regarding the sale of paintings, such as claims of ownership. One such case was a lawsuit brought by a woman, as representative of her mother’s estate, against her father. Belinda Neumann-Donnelly sued her father, Hubert Neumann. The painting in question, which Neumann-Donnelly had inherited from her mother, was called Flesh and Spirit, and it sold for $30.7 million at an auction in 2018.^[22]

Hubert Neumann had unsuccessfully sued Sotheby’s auction house to prevent the sale of the painting when his daughter initially tried to sell it in 2016. When the painting was sold at the auction, Neumann-Donnelly sued her father for $100 million because she believed that his legal action had lowered the price of the painting.

Neumann-Donnelly claimed that Neumann intentionally tried to affect her by lowering the value of the painting. The reason she believed he did this was because he claimed that she had applied pressure to her mother to sign the rights of the artwork over to her. His family had a valuable art collection, and he thought that the sale would be against an agreement with Sotheby’s that gave him the right to approve all sales of art from the family collection. The court did not agree, saying that the painting Flesh and Spirit had been owned only by his wife, with whom he was separated. According to his daughter’s lawsuit, her mother, Dolores Neumann, made it clear that she wished to disinherit her husband, who she claimed was abusive. According to her obituary, Dolores Neumann was a leading graffiti art dealer who helped artists transfer their art from trains to canvas.^[23]

Neumann-Donnelly also sued her father and two sisters to force them to sell all the artwork that was held in trust, with a value of over $50 million dollars. She believed that the art collection should be sold, and the proceeds divided, because it was impossible to own it jointly.^[24][25]

Another legal case involving Basquiat was Rosenfeld v. Basquiat. Michelle Rosenfeld was an art dealer who claimed that she had a contract to buy several paintings by Basquiat. Rosenfeld sued Gerard Basquiat, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s father, who was the administrator of his estate. The issue was that it was unclear if there was a contract between Rosenfeld and Jean-Michel Basquiat for the sale of the paintings.

At the original trial, the artist’s estate attempted to prevent Rosenfeld from testifying about meetings she claimed to have had with Basquiat, claiming that this was disallowed under the New York Dead Man’s Statute. This is a law that prevents a party who has an interest in a civil case (in this case, Rosenfeld) from testifying about communications and transactions with the deceased person (in this case, Basquiat), as well as events that took place in the presence of the deceased person, and matters in which the deceased person was a witness or a party.

However, at a later point in the trial, the estate agreed to the use of the plaintiff’s testimony. Therefore, the plaintiff testified that she went to Basquiat’s apartment and they made an agreement that he would sell her three paintings at a cost of $4,000 each. The titles of the paintings were “Separation of the ‘K’” which was a diptych, “Atlas,” and “Untitled Head.” She said that Basquiat asked for a ten percent cash deposit. She left his apartment and then came back with $1,000 in cash, which she gave him.

She asked for a receipt, but instead, Basquiat made a contract written in crayon on a piece of paper and told her that it would be worth money someday. The contract included the names of the paintings, the signatures of both parties, and the fact that the cost was $12,000 with $1,000 paid as a deposit, on the date of October 25, 1982. Rosenfeld said that she had asked when the paintings would be delivered, and Basquiat wanted to wait two years or more, since he wanted to show them at exhibitions. Another person who testified was Ron Belfrom, Rosenfeld’s driver, who claimed to have been at the meeting at Basquiat’s apartment. The contract had been examined by a forensic expert, Paul Osborn, who was of the opinion that the contract was in fact in Basquiat’s handwriting. The plaintiff said that she had once had photographs of the paintings but did not have them at the time of the trial. Instead, reconstructions of the paintings were used.

The defendant tried to show that the contract was fraudulent. The jury could not come to a decision, and therefore, the case ended in a mistrial.

In a new trial, despite the Dead Man’s Statute, Rosenfeld was allowed to testify. The evidence was the same as in the first trial except for the fact that the manager of an art gallery that worked with Basquiat’s art testified, and also another handwriting expert, this time provided by the defendant, Basquiat’s Estate.

The jury entered a verdict for Rosenfeld, stating the fact that there was a contract for the sale of the paintings in October 1982, and a separate oral agreement to set the delivery date, which was in October 1987. Basquiat died in 1988, and at that time, the paintings were worth $395,000.00. This was the time when Rosenfeld found out about the breach of contract. She was given a judgment of $384,000 (the market value minus the purchase price). She was also awarded $217,301.92 for interest.

The estate appealed, and the decision was reversed and remanded for a new trial.^[26]

For the issue of authenticity as opposed to forgeries concerning Basquiat’s paintings, scientific methods can be applied. In a situation where the authenticity of three Basquiat paintings was doubted, the examination of fingerprints, hair, and fibers proved that the paintings were indeed Basquiat’s work. Unfortunately, Basquiat’s fingerprints are not available, but by examining fingerprints on paintings that are without a doubt Basquiat’s work, the fingerprints on the discussed paintings were found to be similar. Again, Basquiat’s hair was not available for comparison with the hair found attached to the painting in discussion, but the fact that the hair belonged to a biracial person – Haitian and Puerto Rican- implies that the hair could have belonged to Basquiat. In addition, cat hair was found attached to the paintings, the same type as a cat represented in a photograph with Basquiat (a Siamese cat). Currently, DNA studies are being performed at the present on eventual skin cells left by Basquiat on some of his paintings and on roots of hair found on the paintings.

The Basquiat estate’s continued denial of the clear, indisputable evidence of the existence of this young, brilliant artist’s early foundational work, artistic life, and early career is troubling. The denial of the period of time in his young life, living on the horrific streets of the Lower East Side of New York City in the mid to late 1970’s, the time during which he developed his raw, visual, symbolic artistic language, designs and motifs, many significantly influenced by African history, symbolism, and cultural heritage, his continuing struggle with drugs, and racism, and his overwhelming desire to be recognized as a virtuoso artist, lessens and degrades Jean-Michel Basquiat’s legacy, and his place in art history as the key pioneering patriarch of the Neo-Expressionism art movement. If the Basquiat estate were truly committed to protecting his art, history, and legacy, they would acknowledge the first half of his professional artistic life, for it is the defining foundation of his artistic life’s work.