Aaron Herbert De Groft (December 2, 1965 – January 18, 2025) was an American museum director, author, and art curator.
[5] De Groft attended university at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he majored in history and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1988.
[6][7] During that time, he took a position at the Muscarelle Museum of Art under then-director Glenn D. Lowry who had him performing manual jobs before moving into more of a research role.
[6] He went on to earn a master's degree in art history and museum studies with a speciality in contemporary American painting at the University of South Carolina-Columbia.
[9][10] While at FSU, he contributed to the Winterthur Portfolio academic journal, writing an article called "Eloquent Vessels/Poetics of Power", focusing on the pottery of David Drake.
[19] He worked to save the Ca' d'Zan mansion in Sarasota, Florida, and oversaw the $15 million conservation and restoration budget for the project, after which he was invited to apply to become director of the Muscarelle Museum of Art in Williamsburg, Virginia, a position which he accepted.
[30] In February 2022, The New York Times raised questions about the authenticity and provenance of the works, noting that one painting was made on FedEx shipping material featuring a typeface the company did not begin using until 1994, years after Basquiat's death.
[1] After the FBI raid, the museum faced a $1 million deficit for fiscal year 2024 from spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on crisis communications and legal fees.
[34] De Groft insisted the paintings were genuine throughout the remainder of his life, and later filed a countersuit against the museum, alleging wrongful dismissal.
Writing for Observer, journalist Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly said, "[De Groft] has exhibited a pattern of acquiring unremarkable paintings at auction and then attributing them to masters.
"[35] De Groft married Kathryn Lee (née Gardner) at the Ashland Place United Methodist Church in Mobile, Alabama, on September 28, 1991.