Michael Barzman, 45, was charged with making false statements to the FBI and has agreed to plead guilty, prosecutors said.
LOS ANGELES — A former Los Angeles auctioneer has agreed to plead guilty in a cross-country art fraud scheme where he created fake artwork and falsely attributed the paintings to artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
Defendant Michael Barzman, 45, of North Hollywood, was charged Tuesday in federal court in Los Angeles with making false statements to the FBI during an interview last year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release. He has agreed to plead guilty and faces up to five years in prison. Mark Elliott, the chairman of the Orlando museum’s board of trustees, said in a statement that the museum “has recommitted itself to its mission to provide excellence in the visual arts with its exhibitions, collections, and educational programming” in the wake of the scandal.
Mumford, who died in 2018, told investigators he had never owned any Basquiat art, and the paintings were not in the unit the last time he had opened it.
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