Professor. I'm Mark Landis. showButton: data.footer.button.showButton, And var data = chameleonData[0]; View the profiles of professionals named "Mark Landis" on LinkedIn. Mark Landis has been called one of the most prolific art forgers in US history. Arthur Landis, Jr. and even closer his late mother Jonita Joyce Brantley as she did remarry when Landis' father passed. beforeAfterContainer.BeforeAfter(options); 1) by 19th century artist Charles Courtney Curran. At Wavelength Capital, we strive to make life better: We seek to save people time and money and empower them to reach their important goals faster. On any fair-weather weekend, many of Southern California's mountain trails are busy, and the biggest challenge today, could be finding a parking space! The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. showButton: data.footer.button.showButton, Landis had trained at the . Mark Landis, in the guise of Father Scott, among others, has spent decades creating forgeries and gifting . agent who ran the agencys art-crime team, said that he has been working informally on behalf of several museums Mr. Landis visited to gather more information about his actions, with the aim of determining whether a legal case could be built against him for theft of goods and services. Sam Cullman/Courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories. Exhibition organized and toured by International Arts & Artists, Washington DC, in conjunction with curator Colette Loll. A new documentary called Art & Craft tells the story of notorious art forger Mark Landis (above) and the museum registrar who spent more than three years hunting him down. One Landis version of an Alfred Jacob Miller painting made it into "six or seven museums.". Sam Cullman/Courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories During a tour of the department Landis told Gibson though his sister had never gone to The W, she thought highly of the school. We use Premium access for businesses and educational institutions. He'll correct you if you call him an artist because his art, like his life, is not what it first appears to be. rightCredit: data.images.right.rightCredit, Not only were his fakes convincing, but he also knew exactly what to say when he met with museums. The remarkably high-quality forgery was done by Mark Landis, a notorious art forger who has been profiled by the likes of The New Yorker and has done copies of artworks by sources ranging from Picasso to Disney. Article topics. His materials including magic markers and frames from Wal-Mart are not those of a "proper" forger, says filmmaker Sam Cullman. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Landis's copy of Ren Magritte's drawing "La vocation" (1964) (courtesy Mark Landis) . startPoint: data.images.startPoint, One: her real name was Frances Lillian Mary Ridste. Mark Landis (Mark Augustus Landis) was born on 10 March, 1955 in Norfolk, Virginia, United States. He had a connection to Laurel and he knew of the museum, he said, and you just assume good intentions.. The verso of a fake Charles Courtney Curran painting that Mark A. Landis presented, with a label from a defunct Manhattan gallery. (She died last April.) Standard Digital includes access to a wealth of global news, analysis and expert opinion. The earliest donation of a fake by Landis in my dossier dates to 1985, when many of his forgeries were given to the DeGrummond Libraries at the University of Southern Mississippi which included drawings by Dr. Seuss. } To keep him busy and prevent him from trying to dupe more museums, Loll and the Art & Craft filmmakers have set up a website where people can commission him to make portraits from photographs. The original is titled 'A Portrait de Lora.' (Image credit: Dottie Stover, University of Cincinnati) rightImage: data.images.right.rightImage, The principal had become suspicious and contacted me as I had become the authority for all things Landis. For an optimal experience visit our site on . When I met Landis for the first time, not only did he show the love of art but the love of his family, mainly mother as he always referred. He speaks in a soft, halting, almost childlike tone. (function($) { rightImage: data.images.right.rightImage, The film stars David Naughton and Griffin Dunne as two college students that are attacked by a werewolf while touring Britain. I am one of the most prolific art forgers in US history. 1955) approached dozens of museums and university galleries claiming to be a wealthy philanthropist with a collection he wished to donate in honor of his deceased parents. But forgery and fraud are outright lies that hurt others, even if there is no financial gain or loss, fraud is fraud and a forgery is a fake. He fought the disease much like he lived his life - with . You buy the same boards at Home Depot as the Curran, which are the exact right width, and you just measure out the length. Jonita Landis,. Certainly, the case of Mark Landis is a curious one. You might call Matt Leininger the story's Sherlock Holmes. (function($) { Mark Landis visited the Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum in Lafayette, Louisiana, dressed as Father Arthur Scott and claiming he wished to donate a painting in honor of his deceased mother. Mark Landis passed away in Camdenton, Missouri. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. Master Forger's 'Mona Lisa' Turns Up in SoHo Caf. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. Landis has been making and gifting forgeries for over thirty years with nothing, other than catered to, in exchange. That would be a crime. Website designed and maintained by IA&As Design Studio. First, it demonstrates that the forgers ability level is comparable to that of the famous master whose work has been copied. Landis works on a "Picasso" at his home. Since Landis was donating his copies to museums, he wasn't doing anything illegal. In Art & Craft, we also learn that Landis is a huge fan of old movies and TV shows. Frankly, there are only two things we know for sure about Landis' birth. It looks like a million dollars. (At one point, he Next Page. He fought the disease much like he lived his life - with determination and persistence, strength, grace and humility. Master of Public Administration in Urban Affairs, Princeton University, 1969. Here, exclusively for T, Landis talks about some of his most successful forgeries. I hung the handicapped tag on the mirror and we went inside. leftCredit: data.images.left.leftCredit, Of course it undermines the experts privatelyuntil the fake is revealed, in which case even the capture of the forger can underscore the mind behind the scheme and make them feel a victor. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". Roni Landis, age 60, died at Monaco Parkway Health and Rehabilitation on September 17th, 2015. Robert K. Wittman, a former F.B.I. Landis was very close to his dad Lt. Cmdr. var beforeAfterContainer = $('#nytmm_beforeAfter_wrapper499 .nytmm_beforeAfter_container'); Earlier this month, Loll, the filmmakers and Landis attended a screening of Art & Craft at a conference for mental health professionals and families affected by mental illness. He has also appeared as an actor in a . He has been plying art museums with fakes since the mid-1980s, giving imitations to dozens of U.S. institutions, from Washington to San Francisco. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. I dont think his mother had even a clue that this was going on, he added. Someone asked what artists he admired. After donating a painting to a museum, he showed his mother a letter of appreciation from the museum, which impressed his mother and thus fueled his actions even more. When he arrived at the Hilliard University Art Museum in Louisiana, driving a large red Cadillac that had belonged to his mother, Jonita Joyce Brantley, formerly of Laurel, Mississippi, he introduced himself as Father Arthur Scott. Landis fooled museums around the country for years with his convincing copies of Picasso, Signac and Watteau works. Landis' mom learned that her son would have no hands and feet from an ultrasound picture taken when she was about eight months pregnant. [2] http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/%E2%80%9CJesuit-priest-donates-fraudulent-works/21787 accessed 5 January 2012. (560) 1 h 29 min 2014 18+. Howard Kelly Landis III passed away peacefully at his home on January 2, 2021 following a heroic two-year battle with cancer. E-mail: landism@cofc.edu. But he accepted no money for these gifts, not even a tax break. Landis works on a "Picasso" at his home. Matt was the guy trying to bring justice to the world. Its the most bizarre thing Ive ever come across, said Matthew Leininger, the director of museum services at the Cincinnati Art Museum, who first met Mr. Landis in 2007 when Mr. Leininger was the registrar at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, and Mr. Landis offered to donate several works under his own name. It is also quite possible that he is one of the greatest artists of our age. An internationally acclaimed artist, Mark Landis, who suffers from mental illness, was diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 17. Learn How rich is He in this year and how He spends money? And, he is easily distracted by details a womans bracelet, an ornate door hinge, the authenticity of a vintage movie poster which command all his attention. Mark was born June 8th, 1978 to William (Bill) and. var options = { And then there is a more practical side to his art. On the below images, click and drag the slider to compare Landiss versions (at left) to the original masterpieces (which can be uncovered The next morning Landis came by the paper to say good-bye. Mr. Tullos of the Hilliard said his museum would like to find a way to stop him in case Mr. Landis decided to adopt another identity and keep up his campaign. rightButtonText: data.footer.button.rightButtonText His real name is Mark A. Landis, and he is a lifelong painter and former gallery owner. A funny fascinating too-good-to-be-true documentary about Mark Landis one of the world's most prolific art forgers who for over 30 years has duped museums across the country--until one determined registrar sets out to stop him. Sam Cullman/Courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories This holds little sway when thousands, and occasionally millions, are at stake, should the new work be deemed authentic. The most recent tenant is Bradly Gates. As we approached the stairs to the Omnova Theater, Landis said to no one in particular, Its Marks big adventure.. The crowd seemed charmed by the film, but more so, they were charmed by its subject, who fielded questions afterward. He crafted meticulous back-stories for his own alter egos, and for the works that supposedly came from his familys collection. They get a letter in the mail of a promised gift of art and then it shows up via FedEx or in person, as he did while I was in Oklahoma City, along with a photocopy of an auction catalogue entry for provenance reasons showing he was the owner. Landis was diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 17. Let me be clear: Unlike art forgers who do what they do for financial gain, Landis (who employed a variety of pseudonyms) never asked for or received any remuneration for his work. She's organized a touring exhibition of works by five notorious forgers, including Landis. So was the attention he got from museums when they thought he was a philanthropist. Landis, Carolyn Press was born on March 24, 1943 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Once the work was part of the collection and Landis had left the scene, he did not seem to mind if the work was found to be fake. paintings for five-something. Mark Landis is a balding, soft-spoken middle-aged man who lives in a messy Laurel, Mississippi apartment where he drinks wine, smokes cigarettes, watches old movies on TV, and makes forgeries of artwork that he then donates to Southern museums free of charge, convincing the . hide caption. His stunts made headlines around the world. beforeAfterContainer.BeforeAfter(options); Unlike most forgers, he does not seem to be in it for the money, but for a kind of satisfaction at seeing his works accepted as authentic. Everyone benefits. Antiquities Art Crime Impressionism . Two: Clara Ridste was her mother. The St. Louis University Museum of Art still lists his donations on its Web site but describes them as in the manner of Stanislas Lepine and Paul Signac, not as works by the artists. Our soft spot: art and money," says one museum director featured in the documentary. showFooter: data.footer.showFooter, where he continues to make his forgeries he calls them his arts and crafts often while watching television. He used detail elements, like the worn label on the back of the fake Curran, to pass initial examination, but not close scrutiny. Mark Augustus Landis (born 1955) is an American painter who lives in Laurel, Mississippi. It was signed by Thomas Jefferson. When I was 8 or 9, I noticed that I could put a piece of paper over one of the museum catalogs, even if I couldnt see A funny, fascinating, too-good-to-be-true documentary about Mark Landis, one of the world's most prolific art forgers, who for over 30 years has duped museums across the country--until one determined registrar sets out to stop him. I was contacted by a curator in Muncie, Indiana, where she told me that the forger was now operating as Marc Lanois, and had gifted another forgery to Loyola University in New Orleans. Landis has earned his net worth through his work on many films, music videos, and. at right). Leininger spent five years tracking Landis, and shared his findings with the public in 2010, resulting in media attention from The Art Newspaper, The Guardian (London), The New York Times, Financial Times, Maxim, CBS Sunday Morning, in addition to other international social media outlets and publications. Mark Landis is somewhat of a chameleon. "Mark is one of those people that are so unusual that you kind of don't know what to make of when you meet him," says Cullman. He was the registrar at the Oklahoma City Museum in 2007 when Landis offered to donate works of art there. Landis was self-depreciating, brutally honest and frequently hilarious. He was finally figured out in 2008, but was never arrested since he never accepted payment for his paintings. The real Landis is living on disability. For nearly 30 years, art forger Mark Landis duped dozens of museums into accepting fakes into their collections. His last known attempt to pass off a forgery occurred in mid-November, when he presented himself, again as Father Arthur Scott, at the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, bearing a French Academic drawing. In fact, Landis considers himself a "philanthropist." Landis knew exactly what museums wanted to hear: "He knew right where to hit us. Landis is a paradox. Landis fakes would likely fail to stand up to scrutiny in an open-market situation. Christie Chu, October 1, 2014. Mark D Landis, 52. caption: data.footer.caption, It never occurred to me that other people couldnt do that.. Father: Hans Heinrich Landis b: ABT 1620 Mother: Barbara Bueler b: ABT 1620. var data = chameleonData[0]; That would be a crime. Landis, who lived with his mother in Laurel until she died in 2010, characterizes himself as a lonely old shut-in.. His impressive body of work spans thirty years, covering a wide range of painting styles and periods that includes 15th Century Icons, Picasso, and even Walt Disney. If you read Jan Swoopes Lifestyles cover story in last Sundays paper, the name will be familiar. (function($) { Leininger earned a BA from Wright State University and an MFA in Printmaking from Ohio University, becoming the Curatorial Department Head at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art and then Chief Registrar at the Cincinnati Art Museum. The painting, unframed and wrapped in cellophane, looked like the real thing, with a faded label on the verso from a long-defunct gallery in Manhattan. Leininger did his due diligence and found out that other museums had some of the same works. A painting Mark A. Landis donated to Hilliard University Art Museum as a Charles Courtney Curran. Meet Mark Landis, the Philanthropist Art Forger Who Duped More Than 60 Museums by Doris 8 years ago 2k Views Give a voice to the voiceless! Landis was very close to his dad Lt. Cmdr. Check if your Mark Landis is a freelance writer for The. showFooter: data.footer.showFooter, the modernist painter John Marin he says, You could get a 3-year-old to do better sailboats) while conceding that he may have a modicum of talent. Still, he is appreciative of the opportunities But the fact is he gave it to the museum for free. His re-creations in the style of old masters are astonishing and so are his tools. When contacting museums, he would often use aliases and dress like a Jesuit priest. caption: data.footer.caption, His father was a naval officer in NATO and his parents liked to travel. through it. var beforeAfterContainer = $('#nytmm_beforeAfter_wrapper587 .nytmm_beforeAfter_container'); That same month The Art Newspaper broke the story about Landis and his scheme, after having contacted me knowing I had been tracking Landis, also ran a photograph of him. Genealogy for Johannes Jacob Landis (1667 - 1730) family tree on Geni, with over 230 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. Leininger spent a few years doggedly tracking down which museums Landis had fooled and tried to spread the word. (The Hilliard said it discovered the forgery within hours, using a microscope to find a printed template beneath the paint.). Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. His skills with a pencil or paintbrush are undeniable. But his activities have nonetheless cost museums, which have had to pay for analysis of the works, for research to figure out if more of his fakes are hiding in their collections and for legal advice. Father Scott offered to pay for a good frame and hinted that more paintings and perhaps some money might come the museums way from his family. and other data for a number of reasons, such as keeping FT Sites reliable and secure, [1] The best four summaries of the case appear in The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/12/arts/design/12fraud.html?pagewanted=all), The Art Newspaper (http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/%E2%80%9CJesuit-priest-donates-fraudulent-works/21787), the Financial Times (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/5905c640-2359-11e0-8389-00144feab49a.html#axzz1iaLh3QxA), and Maxim (http://www.maxim.com/amg/STUFF/Articles/Art+Forger+Mark+Landis), and it is largely on these articles that this section is drawn. })(jQuery || NYTD.jQuery); Jos Clemente Orozco, Estudio De Tres Mujeres Desnudas Offered to: The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University, Art Museum of the Americas, This is an easy one. NEWSPAPERS. showButton: data.footer.button.showButton, and I do not know his wealth or how he could make his travels over the years. Hes also made copies of letters from John Hancock and Abraham Lincoln. The interesting thing with the now fourth alias at Loyola, is that Landis had presented himself as Landis at Loyola ten years earlier, and had gifted the institution ten forgeries: all paintings that he had created, and which he passed off as valuable originals. rightButtonText: data.footer.button.rightButtonText He ended the meeting with a request; See if you can smooth things over for me. Institutions provide lunch or carte blanche in their stores, but the story is the same. You may change or cancel your subscription or trial at any time online. The phrase dont look a gift horse in the mouth takes on a new meaning. On May 29, 1987, Landis, Wingo and three co-defendants--associate producer . Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. In Landis case, we do not know the origin of his unusual habit of donating forgeries. But this small, stoop-shouldered, bald-headed man who barely moves his mouth when he speaks has copied works . For three decades Landis created museum-quality forgeries of artworks and donated them to institutions around the country. You can still enjoy your subscription until the end of your current billing period. When it was over, Landis received a standing ovation. Mark Landis, in the guise of Father Scott, among others, has spent decades creating forgeries and gifting them to museums. rightCredit: data.images.right.rightCredit, hide caption. Landis did not use sophisticated techniques to fool experts. leftImage: data.images.left.leftImage, My biggest concern was who is this guy and why has he done this? It appeared that the publicity might have scared him and stopped him. Leininger quickly found that James Brantley was the name of Mark Landis' step-father, and all signs suggested that the painting was a forgery. The art community, its scholars, collectors, curators, and salesmen, have proven themselves a forgers best ally and worst enemy as the professionals do not want to admit they have been duped. He was never legally caught since he gave only fake addresses and names with people in society believing Landis said he was who he was and the gifts were authentic. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. He has been telling the same story for a long time, until I made the discovery. showFooter: data.footer.showFooter, While some examine donations as a matter of course, others did so only after growing suspicious of Mr. Landis. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. beforeAfterContainer.BeforeAfter(options); FAUX Real or should I say FOR Real? It looks like something an untalented eighth or ninth grader would do. The works Landis created were good enough stylistically to fool a person at first glance. (function($) { Art & Craft includes an interview with Robert Wittman, who founded the FBI's Art Crime Team. NEWS & ADVICE. "I mean, these are no small potatoes," Leininger says in the film. Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum. who, over the course of 30 years, duped nearly 60 American museums into accepting his facsimiles of art works the article raised as many questions as it answered. Mark Landis is a small, soft-spoken, 59-year old man living in small-town Mississippi. His house in Laurel, Miss., is extremely cluttered, but his scams are well-organized. He's a shut-in who craves interaction. Not all of the museums have accepted Mr. Landiss donations, but many have, and some have displayed them as authentic works. became so brazen that he began to simply print out copies of his works, going over them with colored pencils and staining them with coffee to make them appear more authentic. var beforeAfterContainer = $('#nytmm_beforeAfter_wrapper548 .nytmm_beforeAfter_container'); university Art and Craft. It is the confidence of gifting his forgeries gaining no financial advantage in addition to playing on the reliance of museums on donations that makes the trick so successful. } His lack of concern with details shows his disinterest in the lasting effect of his fraud. Mark Landis has been a member of Actors' Equity Association since 1978, and his work in the professional theatre took him to a number of different parts of the U.S. where he worked as an actor, a director, and a stage manager. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here. We support credit card, debit card and PayPal payments. If youd like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial. Birney Imes III is the immediate past publisher of The Dispatch. Under his first alias, Steven Gardiner, he gifted in honor of his mother Joan Greene Gardiner a drawing supposedly by Jean-Antoine Watteau, as well as the same Curran forgery to the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in 2009. Second, it undermines the so-called experts who dismissed the scammers original work in the first place. Art forger Mark Landis is the subject of the documentary " Art and Craft ," directed by Sam Cullman and Jennifer Grausman. How the biggest companies plan mass lay-offs, The benefits of revealing neurodiversity in the workplace, Tim Peake: I do not see us having a problem getting to Mars, Our ski trip made me question my life choices, Michelle Yeoh: Finally we are being seen, How Glasgows tiny, muckraking crime mag stays afloat, Apocalypse then: lessons from history in tackling climate shocks. He never accepted any money for his paintings, even turning down the chance to swap the donated paintings for tax write-offs, and so for some time it was unclear as to whether Landis was actually breaking any laws. Thats just the reality. Try full digital access and see why over 1 million readers subscribe to the FT, Purchase a Trial subscription for $1 for 4 weeks, You will be billed $69 per month after the trial ends, Russian far-right fighter claims border stunt exposes Putins weakness, Feds Daly says US rates likely to be higher for longer, Something is boiling: Turkish football fans tackle Erdoan, Three-day weekends and more time for love: Chinas elite dream up policies for Xi, Germany and Italy stall EU ban on combustion engines, Saudi owner of Londons most expensive house sued over alleged unpaid private jet bills, Why the Jeffrey Epstein scandal continues to haunt JPMorgan and Barclays, US electric vehicle batteries poised for new lithium iron age. Jan 7, 2021. (He tends to favor lesser-known artists but occasionally tries his hand at a Picasso, a Watteau or a Daumier.) Jordan Kushins. A Mark Landis forgery of an original painting by Pablo Picasso. Now his paintings and drawings are in a touring exhibition called Intent to Deceive, and he's the subject of a new documentary called Art & Craft. analyse how our Sites are used. } Our soft spot: art and money.". I did not seek the media; they sought me and this story as a social interest piece to help me educate the public, which has been my mission with Landis. var options = { Faux meaning fake or false or For real being you have got to be kidding me or make you think, what seriously? In 2012, an adult male mountain lion was discovered roaming the Hollywood Hills, and he was captured and fitted with a radio collar for study. By then The New Yorker, The Financial Times and The New York Times had published pieces on him. Master of Arts in Political Science, Rutgers University, 1967. This is how he does it, no and I dont mean making the forgeries but making others believe what they are gifted is authentic. var beforeAfterContainer = $('#nytmm_beforeAfter_wrapper347 .nytmm_beforeAfter_container'); He told the audience at the Omnova Theater Thursday evening he had nothing. He has charted Mr. Landiss travels to 19 states and his contacts, either in person or by phone or letter, with more than 40 museums since then, including large institutions like the National Portrait Gallery in Washington and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.