PUTTING THE BAND BACK TOGETHER? Looks To Me Like It Never Broke Up
BACKGROUND
Between March 2012-December 2021, I wrote the crime/fraud blog “Glistening, Quivering Underbelly”. Specializing in the under-reported “dark underbelly of fraud, cons and scams”, the most notorious (and unflagging) con artist I covered was David Damante, a fraudster currently living in Florida.
In November 2013, Damante pled guilty to two counts of wire fraud. In February 2014, he was sentenced to 41 months’ incarceration with 36 months of supervised release to follow. In April 2016, David Damante was sent to FCI Terminal Island, a prison located between San Pedro and Long Beach, California, for violating the terms of release.
And that’s where David Damante met Lumsden (Lu) Quan, a former San Francisco art gallery owner and close associate of Michael William Force, one of the two men (the other is John Leo Mangan III) who showed up at the Orlando Museum of Art with a collection of 25 “lost” Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings.
Quan was serving a sentence for his role in the illegal sale of black rhino horns. Quan was fined $10,000 and banned from any work in the art and antique business until June 2020 under the terms of his release — a condition he appears to have violated with his involvement in a 2017/2018 art fraud scam executed by David Damante.
Post-release, in early 2018, Quan would be represented by Los Angeles attorney, Pierce O’Donnell, in a dispute over a purported “Basquiat” painting Quan claimed he’d purchased from a Costa Mesa, California, coin shop.
Although I suspected Quan’s 2018 “Costa Mesa coin shop” story was bullshit, the true significance of his involvement with Force and Taryn Burns was confirmed in a July 17, 2017 document authored and signed by Burns. (The affidavit was included with material provided by Pierce O’Donnell to the Orlando Museum of Art.)
Burns declares, “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.
The affidavit shown above was part of a trove of provenance-related documents Pierce O’Donnell assembled in his publicly-acknowledged role as the agent for the “Basquiat Venice Collection Group” (BVCG).
The BVCG focused only on the six paintings O’Donnell owns or controls, not the 19 paintings owned by “MJL Family Trust LLC”, a Colorado entity formed on behalf of John Leo Mangan III by his attorney, Richard LiPuma.
The documents reveal O’Donnell’s association with career criminals, forgers and relentless con artists in both 2017/2018 and 2022.
As shown in the chart below, with the exception of David Damante, and the two Canadian citizens (Talin Maltepe and Jason Halter) Mangan engaged to “authenticate” his 19 paintings, nearly every major player involved in Damante’s 2018 Basquiat “Helicopter” auction scheme is involved with — and involved in — the 2022 Orlando exhibition effort.
According to the July 17, 2017 “Declaration of Taryn Burns”, 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 O’Donnell, whose roles are described in previously-unreleased documents related to the 2018 auction, are directly involved in 2022.
In addition, Scott Ferguson, of Las Vegas-based Art Encounter, provided a document to O’Donnell dated November 20, 2017, stating that the “works of art have all the attributes of original works by artist, Jean Michel Basquiat.” Both Ferguson and Brett Maly of Art Encounter were directly involved in Damante’s 2017/2018 scheme, providing provenance and appraisal documents.
The Mumford origin story documentation was initiated with Taryn Burns’ declaration, and enhanced with O’Donnell’s assertions in the Orlando Museum’s Basquiat catalogue.
For example, Mangan and Force had taken Mumford out to lunch in 2012 and breakfast in 2013.
At the lunch, according to Mangan, Mumford handed Mangan a poem purportedly signed by Basquiat, printed using am 80’s era dot-matrix printer by Basquiat himself.
O’Donnell asserted Mangan’s original poem, with the Basquiat “JMB” signature, was used by his handwriting expert, James Blanco, in authenticating the paintings.
However, Blanco’s analysis has a completely different use of the signature: Blanco stated the “poem” was located in the Smithsonian Institution’s collection by a researcher, who used it to validate Basquiat’s handwriting on the paintings.
It appears nearly every pivotal assertion made by O’Donnell on behalf of the paintings has one common denominator: a dead guy.
Mangan and Force got the dot-matrix poem directly from Mumford?
Three guys know the truth, and one’s dead.
In her affidavit, Taryn Burns claims that on February 11, 2013, she received two phone messages from Mumford, recalling that he’d “purchased paintings from Jean-Michel Basquiat when he was working on M*A*S*H”.
And Mumford, according to Burns, even called back, leaving another message to “verify” his earlier message.
Burns “memorialized the essence of Mumford’s voicemail”, but did not record them on another device from her phone.
Burns received two messages from Thaddeus Mumford, confirming crucial details of the collection’s “origin story”?
Two people know the truth, and one’s dead.
The Basquiat Venice Collection Group documents do not include any information (authentication, etc.) about the 19 paintings owned by Mangan’s “MJL Family Trust LLC”.
The investigation continues.
