The Basquiat Hustle (The $100 Million Scandal That Rocked the Art World)

A gripping true-crime caper about Jean-Michel Basquiat, 25 paintings potentially worth $100 million, alleged forgery, a raided museum, and the shadowy fringes of the art world

When 25 paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat were found in a foreclosed storage unit once rented by an Emmy-winning Hollywood screenwriter, they appeared to be a major find. Since his death in 1988, Basquiat’s work has exploded in popularity—and price. In 2017, his Untitled, 1982 was sold for $110.5 million at Sotheby’s, setting an auction record for an American painter. His work is on T-shirts at Uniqlo, Jay-Z’s walls, and in late 2025, a biopic directed by Julius Onah (The Cloverfield Paradox, Captain America: Brave New World) began filming in New York.

The 25 found paintings were valued at over $100 million, and in February 2021, they were unveiled to the public at a major museum exhibition in Florida. Four months later, the FBI’s Art Crime Unit raided the museum and seized all 25 pieces from the walls.

Journalist and New York Times contributor Brett Sokol’s The Basquiat Hustle is a gripping account of the whole affair, and of the art world that fueled it. Sokol first broke news that the paintings were allegedly fraudulent paintings in a series for the Times. If they were fake, who knew? How could they have ended up in a major museum exhibition? Tracking a decade-long inquiry into the paintings and their provenance, Sokol uncovers memorable characters and astonishing clues, from a twice-convicted cocaine dealer to the incriminating typeface on a FedEx label. This is a mesmerizing mixture of art history, journalism, and crime reporting, shot through with celebrity, glamour, and ambition.