“IT HAS STINK WRITTEN ALL OVER IT.” In The Words Of Lu Quan, “I Personally Purchased Basquiats Paintings From Mr. Stilgenbauer Back In 2012” (Wait A Minute…)

Stilgenbauer?

Barzman?

Or maybe Heisenberg?

Writing “Glistening, Quivering Underbelly”, my late (and mostly lamented) crime and fraud blog, for nearly ten years left me with a lofty pile of dirty little secrets — and dirty big secrets. And I published nearly all of them.

To quote the profoundly wise Britney Spears, oops…I did it again!

Just to recap, I became aware of Los Angeles attorney Pierce O’Donnell while researching an investigative series on convicted felon David R. Damante, who served time at the same prison with Lu Quan.

Prior to Quan’s incarceration, Taryn Burns and William Michael Force submitted “character reference” letters on Quan’s behalf to the judge who’d sentence him. After his February 8, 2017 release, Damante began using the “Helicopter” painting (shown below), presented as a Basquiat artwork and purportedly owned by Lu Quan, for an “investment” scheme.

Or “scam”…it sounds less British.

Damante was equipped with a boat load of documentation, including an appraisal report by Art Encounter’s Brett K. Maly, stating that “the work was composed in Venice, CA, in 1982, and is possibly unfinished. Basquiat would often work on several paintings at once, and it was not uncommon for him to abandon initial compositions, or revisit them.”

J. Levine Auction & Appraisal of Scottsdale, Arizona, inked an April 25, 2018 consignment agreement with David Damante to auction “Helicopter”, but later received a phone call from “Attorney Pierce O’Donnell, in Los Angeles, who put our client (Levine) in touch with a gentleman from California (Quan) who claims he is the rightful owner of the painting.”

Wait a minute here.

This is starting to sound strangely familiar.

This is what happened next: O’Donnell, on behalf of Quan and at the request of Taryn Burns, interceded and abruptly cancelled the planned auction.

Eagle-eyed readers of my work here on Medium will likely recognize the name “Taryn Burns”.

According to the July 17, 2017 “Declaration of Taryn Burns” (shown below), in October 2012 “Lu Quan and William Force purchased 26 paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat.” In her affidavit, Burns ran down all the Mumford-related details — including the assertion Mumford had left two phone messages acknowledging the sale of his Basquiat paintings.

Force and Burns, whose roles are described here in previously-unreleased documents related to the 2018 auction, are directly involved in the 2022 Orlando Museum of Art’s Basquiat exhibition.

In his essay, Pierce O’Donnell himself acknowledged the duo’s participation in the Museum’s official Basquiat catalogue — referring to Force as “Billy” and Burns as “Taryn”.

Or, as O’Donnell dubbed her, “Billy’s life partner”.

And here’s something strangely unsettling: nearly one year before the Scottsdale auction was cancelled, Burns wrote and signed an affidavit declaring “under perjury pursuant to the laws of the State of California” (and not “under penalty of perjury”), that her “partners Lu Quan and William Force purchased 26 paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat” in October 2012.

Looks like somebody should have shared the news with Lu Quan.

Here’s a shocking revelation making its international debut right here and now: in his May 8, 2018 email to attorney Loren Molever, who represented J. Levine in the unwinding of Damante’s deal, Quan claimed he’d purchased the “Attributed to Basquiat Helicopter painting”, along with several others, from Stephen Stilgenbauer of Coast Coin and Collectibles in Costa Mesa, California.

No “Mike Barzman Auctions” or “Locker #2125 that had been rented for a long time to Thaddeus Q. Mumford, Jr.” as he’d supposedly done with Taryn Burns’ “life partner”.

I’m starting to think there may be more — lots more — that remains unknown. Or, at very least, in direct contradiction to what’s been publicly stated by Pierce O’Donnell.

Here’s the Stilgenbauer email, per Quan’s reference.

So Stilgenbauer gave his unnamed “friend” the money to buy up the remaining “in the style of Jean-Michel Basquiat” paintings, and not “Billy and Lee” as Pierce O’Donnell claimed in his OMA Basquiat catalogue essay?

Whoa, somebody’s pulling my leg!

Back to Lu Quan.

Quan continues, pressing J. Levine’s attorney, Loren Molever, to “work out how to return my property to me without having this unfortunate situation escalate much further”.

What, or you’ll break his legs?

And Quan, in a 2018 moment that will live on to royally screw a 2022 pooch, identifies the man formerly know as “Billy”, AKA Michael Force, as his “designated party”.

Even Dick Wolf, the producer of Law & Order, can’t write a script this tight.

Oh, there’s more…much more!