AND THEN THIS HAPPENED: Nascent Art Fraudster, Randall Scott Smith, Who Claims Ownership Of A Basquiat Collection “With A Value Of 780 Million” Threatens To Sue Me Via A “Ripoff Report” Complaint! Illinois Man Caught In His Own Trap After Posting A Publicly-Available “Forensic” Report On A Document-Hosting Site: “This Women Has No Glue What She Is Doing.”
On Monday, September 12, Illinois resident Randall Scott Smith posted several documents on SCRIBD. The documents were available for anyone with a SCRIBD account to download, which I did.
In a background story on the “Smith Archive”, published here on April 26, 2022, I revealed Talin Maltepe’s role in “authenticating” a collection of “95 lost Basquiats” owned by Smith.
Maltepe and another Canadian, Jason Halter, helped Leo Mangan get his 19 Basquiat paintings to market, and the Smith “origin story” has striking elements of the Orlando Basquiat myth:
“The SMITH COLLECTION is comprised of 95 works by the late Jean-Michel Basquiat, and comes from a collection of about 200 works that were collected and owned by the late Rupert Jasen Smith, master print maker and art director of Andy Warhol’s Factory, and friend of Jean-Michel.”
Later that day, September 12, I searched for “Scott Palmer”, the Georgia man who was noted in Smith’s “JEAN MICHEL BASQUIAT: FINGERPRINT-9–9–22 Forensic Latent Fingerprint Examination” document as the owner of “homemade portfolio” of purported Basquiat paintings sent for examination. Smith’s document referenced the “SOLOMON ENDOWMENT COLLECTION & 95 MASTERWORKS COLLECTION FINGER PRINT MATCH” testing.
I located Scott Palmer, who teaches art at a Christian school, featured in an exclusive report posted in 2021 on the school’s website: “Up Close To Art | Jean-Michel Basquiat”. The story asserted that “Mr. Scott Palmer, art faculty, collector, and historian, worked together with the Solomon Endowment to show four original Basquiat pieces of art. For two days, students were provided with the opportunity to study and discuss the work before receiving their most recent assignment.”
A photo in the story shows what are described as “four original Basquiat pieces of art” the students were allowed to closely observe and, in “homage to Jean-Michel Basquiat, students will create an art piece that represents their thoughts — the imagery and words that go through their heads.”
Later that day, September 12, I located a podcast featuring Scott Palmer, dubbed “Cultivating Grace — Episode 3”.
Here’s an excerpt, in the words of Palmer:
“Born in San Antonio Texas in 1973 on New Years Eve. I was brought up in a military family that relocated every 3 years. I lived in Germany age 6 through 9 and traveled pretty extensively in surrounding countries and was introduced to museums in those countries and was where I decided to pursue art as a way of life at 9. That is also the day I saw the Mona Lisa and decided to figure out why it didn’t sit right with me that it was the most famous painting in the world. After 31 years I have developed a solid idea on why and how it was not a painting by Leonardo.
I graduated from SCAD in 1996 with a major in illustration and a minor in art history. Since then I have been working primarily in a freelance arena until 2011 where I started working at Landmark Christian School in Fairburn, Georgia, where 2 years ago I became a full time employee and I am now on the Fine Arts end of things so my everyday focus is on making art or helping others make art.
I founded the Solomon Endowment which will be a non profit organization that helps build a fine arts facility at Landmark and will have a museum that houses my collection. In addition, my invention, Advertobiles, will eventually create a large income, 90% of which will be given away through the Solomon Endowment to build and maintain the fine arts center, add to the art museum, and build it into a competitive collection in our region. After the fine arts center is on the road to success, the endowment will support other christian organizations with fine art. The endowment will also support an artist incubator to help chosen artists create art without being held back by the expense of doing so.”
I sent this email below to the Landmark Christian School, requesting an opportunity to communicate directly with Palmer.
Later that day, I received Palmer’s response (below). In the response, he asserts that “we have nearly 250 of his works” (meaning Basquiat) and was “in the process of acquiring a much larger collection at this time.”
I responded the next afternoon, September 14, with five pointed questions. As I write this, neither Palmer (nor his attorney) have responded.
Frankly, although I don’t expect either one to answer me, I will publish whatever I receive.
Subsequent to publishing my September 13 story, I learned that Randall Scott Smith went all HAM on “Ripoff Report”…or he tried to.
Here’s a sampling of his misspelled, utterly stupid, threatening allegations. Smith published my home address, and ranted like a lunatic.
