RANDALL SCOTT SMITH, OWNER OF THE “Basquiat Lost Masterworks” COLLECTION, TOOK AN I IMAGE PUBLISHED HERE ON MEDIUM….And Is Using It In An Effort To Sell His 95 Fake Basquiat Paintings. It’s Not Going To Work!
Randall Scott Smith, a client of Talin Maltepe and Jason Halter (the two Canadians who “authenticated” the fugazi Orlando Basquiat paintings) jacked the “Declaration of Alfredo Martinez”, produced on behalf of Los Angeles attorney Pierce O’Donnell, and is using it as “proof” of his Basquiat collection’s authenticity.
On May 26, 2022, I published an exclusive report on Medium and revealed a previously-secret document among those sent in April 2022 by Los Angeles attorney, Pierce O’Donnell, to Tessa Solomon of ArtNews.
I have discovered that Smith took images of the document from my story, doctored them to include pictures of Alfredo Martinez with Maltepe, and his “Smith Archive” of “95 lost Basquiats” — using the document in a way it was never intended.
In addition, I have obtained several documents that reveal Smith has recently enlisted the assistance of a forensic examiner in an attempt to prove “latent fingerprints” found on several of the “Smith Archive” works actually belonged to Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Smith’s forensic examiner is relying in part on forensics specialist Nicholas Petraco, the founder of Petraco Forensic Art Consulting, LLC., and a retired New York City detective.
Fun fact: Petraco is one of the “experts” helping Tracey Donner Finch prove her faker-than-fake Basquiat collection — more than 100 drawings Finch purchased from Kevin Doyle, an eBay seller and notorious Basquiat postcard forger — is authentic. Finch was featured on CBS’ “Sunday Morning” in July 2022, adamantly insisting that her collection was legit.
The “Forensic Latent Fingerprint Examination”, dated August 16, 2022, details the consultant’s “Examination of Handmade Portfolio” authentication of Basquiat’s fingerprints on one of Smith’s paintings.
Here are some excerpts from the August 16, 2022 report issued to Randall Scott Smith by a Massachusetts-based forensic consulting firm. In the report, the examiner asserts the fingerprints from Smith’s painting (shown below, and dubbed “Yellow Eyes”) belong to Jean-Michel Basquiat.
If you believe that, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you.
In “Sleeping With Basquiat”, her catalogue essay for the 2018 “Smith Archive”, Toronto resident Talin Maltepe spun a tale Randall Scott Smith and his Basquiats — formerly the contents of a shipping container, long forgotten in a New Jersey aircraft hangar since 1988.
The unusually imaginative narrative cooked up for the “Smith Collection” by Maltepe and Halter, those two crazy Canadians who helped Leo Mangan get his 19 Basquiat paintings to market, 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.”
Taken from the Smith catalogue:
“Randall Smith, of Illinois, had come to be aware of the collection via social media in 2013, and began to collect the works, knowing how valuable the works would be as a comprehensive collection. Over the course of approximately 3 years, Smith collected 95 works by the late Jean-Michel Basquiat, constantly researching the life of the artist and the works, knowing that they were of enormous value, aware of their significance in the oeuvre of the late Basquiat.”
Much more on this tomorrow!
