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.

In Orlando, he staged a blockbuster exhibition of works said to be newly discovered paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat. He was fired when the paintings turned out to be forgeries.

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

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.