Insurers balk at $19.7M claim on fake Basquiat paintings seized by FBI Two insurance companies have asked a court to block a $19.7 million claim by owners of more than two dozen forged Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings that were seized during an FBI raid at the Orlando Museum of Art in 2022.
The owners filed a claim last year with the insurance companies, who argued the policy doesn’t cover the paintings because they aren’t authentic.
Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and Great American Insurance Company sought a declaratory judgment in Orlando, Florida, that the policy doesn't cover counterfeits.
“Defendants do not have any valid claim to proceeds from this ‘loss’ since there is no loss to begin with,” the insurance companies said in court papers filed late last year.
They said they acted in good faith and that the paintings’ authenticity shouldn’t play a role in whether a claim is paid out since the insurers chose not to investigate their authenticity when they were added to the policy,.
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