Two insurance companies have asked a court to block a $19.7 million claim by owners of more than two dozen forged Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings that were seized during an FBI raid at the Orlando Museum of Art in 2022. The insurers say that the owners should have known that the works were counterfeits and they have no value.
Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and Great American Insurance Company sought a declaratory judgment in Orlando, Florida, that the policy doesn’t cover counterfeits.
“Defendants do not have any valid claim to proceeds from this ‘loss’ since there is no loss to begin with,” the insurance companies said in court papers filed late last year. “The paintings have not been damaged or destroyed.”…