So our job now is to make sure that every museum out there knows what he looks like and what hes up to., Elusive Forger, Giving but Never Stealing, https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/12/arts/design/12fraud.html. (He tends to favor lesser-known artists but occasionally tries his hand at a Picasso, a Watteau or a Daumier.) During a tour of the department Landis told Gibson though his sister had never gone to The W, she thought highly of the school. var data = chameleonData[0]; None of his numbers worked. My biggest concern was who is this guy and why has he done this? "The setup as we were introduced to the story was these people were on opposing sides," says Cullman. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". He was dressed in a black suit, with a Jesuit pin on his lapel. I have tracked Landis travels through 20 states thus far and have linked him to over 50 institutions including the prestigious School of the Art Institute of Chicago. 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! [1] He is best known for "donating" large numbers of forged paintings and drawings to American art museums. 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. The auction house, gallery owner, or other middle man selling the piece gains its commission. And you could go six months without seeing him. The museums suspicions aroused, it examined the works and determined they were forgeries. leftButtonText: data.footer.button.leftButtonText, Mark Augustus Landis (born 1955) is an American painter who lives in Laurel, Mississippi. Associated Addresses 5001 Kingsley Dr, Cincinnati, OH 45227 4407 State Route 37 W # 37, Delaware, OH 43015 4407 State Route 37 W, Delaware, OH 43015Show More (+) Associated Phone Numbers (740) 363-3284 (740) 362-7178 (740) 363-5070 (419) 674-4225 (740) 363-4012 By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. 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 . Pierce contextualised Landis in relation to Honor de Balzac's character, Lucien Chardon, who struggled to read and . Art fraud investigator Colette Loll believes making fakes was the way he managed his mental illness. Kel was a wonderful, loving husband, father, grandfather, son, brother, uncle, friend and mentor. The only flicker of suspicion came when a museum employee began to chat with Father Scott about possible mutual acquaintances in the nearby Catholic community, at which point the priest seemed to grow nervous and claimed I travel a lot, to cover for his inability to recognize local names. He has been one of the most prolific forgers American museums have encountered in years, writing, calling and presenting himself at their doors, where he tells well-concocted stories about his familys collection and donates small, expertly faked works, sometimes in honor of nonexistent relatives. It wasn't like Landis went in and said, 'Here, I want to give you this fabulous painting by Picasso and you need to pay me $100,000 for the painting.' That evening before the screening of the film, Landis mingled easily with the crowd attending Elayne Goodmans opening. 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. If you read Jan Swoopes Lifestyles cover story in last Sundays paper, the name will be familiar. You buy the same boards at Home Depot as the Curran, which are the exact right width, and you just measure out the length. They look the same, you know?. Some known art forgers have turned to forgery for psychological and financial reasons. Museums rely on gifts to fill their walls since many museums have little funds for acquisitionsmost of the Baroque art at Londons National Gallery, for instance, is owned by Sir Dennis Mahon, and the works are displayed on loan thanks to his beneficence. A Wikipedia entry reports Landis has shared his output with more than 60 museums in 20 states. Landis himself stated to me that his rationale for perpetrating this unusual scheme was that Everyone likes to be treated nice.. The verso of a fake Charles Courtney Curran painting that Mark A. Landis presented, with a label from a defunct Manhattan gallery. 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. Check if your Jonita Landis,. Standard Digital includes access to a wealth of global news, analysis and expert opinion. Next Page. 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. It would shatter the delicate reliance museums have on donors and supporters if they were to look too closely and, heaven forbid, discover something wrong with the gift offered and accepted. Our soft spot: art and money," says one museum director featured in the documentary. As we approached the stairs to the Omnova Theater, Landis said to no one in particular, Its Marks big adventure.. Landis duped more than 45 museums with his copies. Not all of the museums have accepted Mr. Landiss donations, but many have, and some have displayed them as authentic works. Art And Craft. Hes copied 19th century bank notes from the Republic of Texas. Landis was diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 17. })(jQuery || NYTD.jQuery); Stanislas Lepine, Terrassiers, au Trocadero (c. 1890) Offered to: Oklahoma City Museum of Art, St. Louis University Museum of Art, University of Kentucky Museum of Art, Mississippi Museum rightImage: data.images.right.rightImage, (function($) { The Hilliard University Art Museum discovered that they had been given a fake within hours when examining the painting under a microscope and ultraviolet light. After completing his AA degree at Normandale College, he worked in security, started his own business, Phoenix Taxi, and . 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. We use He had a connection to Laurel and he knew of the museum, he said, and you just assume good intentions.. Howard Kelly Landis III passed away peacefully at his home on January 2, 2021 following a heroic two-year battle with cancer. Designated as P-22 by wildlife officials, the cat. I've copied works by artists like Picasso and Walt Disney and, posing as a philanthropist (or sometimes an executor of a will or a Jesuit priest), donated them to institutions such as the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the Art Institute of Chicago, and others. Mark Landis, the forger whose hoodwinking of more than 50 museums across 20 states was the subject of this year's documentary Art and Craft, does not exactly play to type. beforeAfterContainer.BeforeAfter(options); In the weeks since an article in The Art Newspaper first revealed the scope of the forgeries, museums and their lawyers have been trying to locate Mr. Landis, who was never easy to find in the first place because he often provided bogus addresses and phone numbers. (At one point, he He has also appeared as an actor in a . Mark D Landis, 52. Premium access for businesses and educational institutions. Includes Address (11) Phone (7) Email (10) See Results. 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. 2013 International Arts & Artists. The routine, which included about two dozen dancers dressed in ornate feathered headpieces and beading, was choreographed by Paula Abdul and filmed over two days. He crafted meticulous back-stories for his own alter egos, and for the works that supposedly came from his collection. Landis, Carolyn Press was born on March 24, 1943 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It bore a weathered label of a defunct New York art gallery on the verso. On the below images, click and drag the slider to compare Landiss versions (at left) to the original masterpieces (which can be uncovered Since Landis was donating his copies to museums, he wasn't doing anything illegal. 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. By creating a work of your own which exhibits your artistic skill to have it mistaken for the work of an acknowledged master, the revenge is two-fold. beforeAfterContainer.BeforeAfter(options); lot of glamorous, sophisticated people, he said while sitting with Cullman, the films co-director. Thats just the reality. rightButtonText: data.footer.button.rightButtonText That would be a crime. var options = { rightCredit: data.images.right.rightCredit, Mark Landis (1955-) From the age of 17, Landis suffered from schizophrenia, a mental disorder that distorts perceptions of reality, affecting how an individual thinks, behaves, and acts. organisation He rarely eats. rightButtonText: data.footer.button.rightButtonText These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Landis' birth is one of those riddles wrapped up in an enigma, stuffed into a paradox, and then boxed in a quandary. Christie Chu, October 1, 2014. Mark Landis with his forged copy of the Mona Lisa. Later, Landis learns about Trina's past and turns her in to the authorities, planning to clear her name. 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. })(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. Art and Craft. After a short driving tour of Columbus, as we were looking for a parking spot near the arts center, I asked Landis if he (I was driving his car) had a handicap sticker. caption: data.footer.caption, } Not only were his fakes convincing, but he also knew exactly what to say when he met with museums. caption: data.footer.caption, Search. var beforeAfterContainer = $('#nytmm_beforeAfter_wrapper499 .nytmm_beforeAfter_container'); Mark Landis is somewhat of a chameleon. 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. . And I think over time we learned that, while they may have opposing roles, they shared an obsession. With his odd demeanor and near encyclopedic knowledge of art history, Landis could easily come across as an eccentric art collector, says Sam Cullman, co-director of Art & Craft. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. He crafted meticulous back-stories for his own alter egos, and for the works that supposedly came from his familys collection. His house in Laurel, Miss., is extremely cluttered, but his scams are well-organized. Ive gotten to make an awful lot of friends, and talk to an awful He donated a painting said to be by Charles Courtney Curran, under the pretext of the loss of his mother. I hung the handicapped tag on the mirror and we went inside. For an optimal experience visit our site on . rightImage: data.images.right.rightImage, where he continues to make his forgeries he calls them his arts and crafts often while watching television. ", Landis was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was 17. Landis went quiet after the publication of The Art Newspaper article in 2010. "They didn't have TVs in the hotel rooms yet. He has a master's degree in fine art, as a printmaker, and he is a knowledgeable follower of Nascar, which his wife introduced him to while they were courting. In August 2011, posing as a Jesuit priest, Landis showed up at Mississippi University for Women with a sketch by costume designer Edith Head he wanted to donate to the school in honor of his sister. Inside was what looked to be a medieval icon, a vintage print of Brer Rabbit from Joel Chandler Harris Uncle Remus and a short, handwritten note on folded, crinkled paper. showFooter: data.footer.showFooter, You might call Matt Leininger the story's Sherlock Holmes. "John Landis is a perfectionist . Since it was unframed, Father Scott (Landis) offered to pay for the frame, and also suggested that he might consider donating more paintings from his familys collection. leftImage: data.images.left.leftImage, Landis pays his own travel, lodging, meals, etc. [3] He studied photography in Chicago before becoming an art dealer in San Francisco. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. I flipped back and forth and would remember it just long enough to get it down. Discover Mark Landis's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Im awful sorry if I caused them any trouble.[4]. Jan 7, 2021. Career Landis, now in his fifties, is a painter and former supposed gallery owner, and a most unusual type of personone who has yet to break a law, and as I mentioned, gained financially. startPoint: data.images.startPoint, The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. So in creating these fakes he thought he was making pretty pictures to impress his mom and gifting them to institutions in her name and his fathers name. His skills with a pencil or paintbrush are undeniable. John Gapper, writing for Financial Times, located Landis shortly after The New York Times reported that Landis seems to have disappeared altogether.Gapper simply drove to the gated community where Landis mother had lived and asked the estate manager where to find Landis. of Art, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Lepine I liked because its nice and small. 1) by 19th century artist Charles Courtney Curran. He reached in the side pocket and produced a handicapped parking tag. It seemed that a Father James Brantley, who looked remarkably like Landis, had donated an oil-on-copper painting, Holy Family with Saint Anne ostensibly by 16th century painter Hans van Aachen. His lack of concern with details shows his disinterest in the lasting effect of his fraud. Landis's career as an art forger began in the mid-1980s, when he gave some pictures to a California museum, saying they were by the American 20th Century artist Maynard Dixon. But when he paid a visit to the Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum in Lafayette, La., last. Mr. For when the forger is caught and his masterpieces come to light, the experts he was out to trick are shown publicly to have been fooled. Sam Cullman/Courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories. Shortly after the Cabrini caper, I received a call, from Georgias Brenau University. showFooter: data.footer.showFooter, Then Landis promises more gifts of art and money to care for the collections but will get in touch when he recovers from heart surgery. He was a small and sickly child who spent most of his time indoors and had an eye for drawing at a young age. showFooter: data.footer.showFooter, 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. Why was he doing this? These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. var beforeAfterContainer = $('#nytmm_beforeAfter_wrapper913 .nytmm_beforeAfter_container'); They include "magic markers and pens and Wal-Mart frames raw materials that proper forgers might not use," says Cullman. rightButtonText: data.footer.button.rightButtonText Anyone can read what you share. A pair of young filmmakers, Sam Cullman and Jennifer Grausman, decided to find out. He fought the disease much like he lived his life - with . The obituary was featured in News-Leader on January 31, 2011. "I mean, these are no small potatoes," Leininger says in the film. [1] He was carrying a painting that he intended to gift to the museum in memory of his mother, whom he told the staff was Helen Mitchell Scott, who he said was a Louisiana native. Specialties: Simplifying complicated problems . Mark Edward Landis, 43 of Bloomington, MN, passed away Sunday, March 20th, 2022 suddenly after a long battle with several heart issues. leftImage: data.images.left.leftImage, caption: data.footer.caption, George Bassi, the director of the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art in Laurel, Miss., where Mr. Landis, 55, has lived off and on for years, said he first encountered him eight years ago, after Mr. Landis moved back to the South from San Francisco, where he is believed to have owned a small art gallery. He said, Well, I travel a lot, Mr. Tullos recalled. Antiquities Art Crime Impressionism . Someone asked what artists he admired. Where was Landis now? Lived In Dublin OH, Hilliard OH, Santa Teresa NM, Drums PA. Related To Jennifer Landis, Kyle Landis, Jason Landis, Terri Landis, Lindsay Landis. Landis has earned his net worth through his work on many films, music videos, and. Mark Landis may be the most infamous and prolific art forger who has never committed a crime. Mark Landis Photo by Joseph Dalton Twelve years ago, The Art Newspaper broke a story about a prolificand somewhat eccentricart forger, who had been placing his work in the collections of. var data = chameleonData[0]; But money was not a factor in the scheme of Mark Landis, aka Steven Gardiner, aka Father Arthur Scott, aka Father James Brantley and aka Marc Lanois, when he showed up at Loyola University in New Orleans in February of 2012. But when the Hilliards director of development chatted with Father Scott about the church and his acquaintances in deeply Roman Catholic southern Louisiana, the man grew nervous. When it was over, Landis received a standing ovation. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here. showButton: data.footer.button.showButton, He looks like he's about 70, except at the time of the film, he was 59. Can Shell close the valuation gap with US rivals? He used detail elements, like the worn label on the back of the fake Curran, to pass initial examination, but not close scrutiny. But after nearly 30 years of giving his fakes to museums, he finally got caught. ---. Jordan Kushins. For nearly 30 years, art forger Mark Landis duped dozens of museums into accepting fakes into their collections. He was finally figured out in 2008, but was never arrested since he never accepted payment for his paintings. Landis Sims, a 10-year-old boy born with no hands or lower legs, joined Alex Rodriguez and the Yankees for a day of baseball. rightImage: data.images.right.rightImage, Mark Landis, in the guise of Father Scott among others, has spent decades creating forgeries and gifting them to museums. I still cultivate a dossier of Landis contacts, sightings, and forged works. (i1717) b: 1697 Barbara Landis . We support credit card, debit card and PayPal payments. He speaks softly, sometimes in incomplete thoughts. Hes very well read and knows a lot about art history, and so he can be very convincing, he said. } Early he had shown me a canvas tote bag someone made for him with Marco the Magician (I was a failed magician before I was a failed artist, he explained) screened on one side and Art and Craft on the other. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Her doctor couldn't pinpoint a cause. I'm Mark Landis. Hes a pistol., But I really doubt that theres going to be any will or funding to pursue action against him, which is kind of sad, he added. "It was an impulse. Here, exclusively for T, Landis talks about some of his most successful forgeries. Art & Craft includes an interview with Robert Wittman, who founded the FBI's Art Crime Team. Landis' box-office triumph comes a little more than a year after the conclusion of a costly, convoluted criminal trial. Mark was born June 8th, 1978 to William (Bill) and Ireane Landis in Bloomington, MN. Sam Cullman/Courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories In the documentary, when the two finally meet, Landis asks Leininger, "Did I get the colors right? In 2008, a registrar caught on to his act and exposed him to the museum community. rightCredit: data.images.right.rightCredit, (The Hilliard said it discovered the forgery within hours, using a microscope to find a printed template beneath the paint.). Mark Has worked at Universal Studios Hollywood Ca for better than 16 years and continues to work there as a Systems Analyst. That may be just as remarkable as his talent.. In The Landis Museum, the work was shown at the entrance, to set the scene for the exhibition, the screens sitting on the dismantled support structures from a previous installation of Mark Landis' work in Glasgow in 2011. "Mark was the villain. rightCredit: data.images.right.rightCredit, This was also the case with the other forgeries that the Oklahoma City Museum of Art had been gifted that I also found in other museums while doing my research. leftCredit: data.images.left.leftCredit, IE 11 is not supported. "[Mother and Dad] liked to go out, and I'd be left alone in the hotel room," Landis says. Master of Public Administration in Urban Affairs, Princeton University, 1969. It doesnt happen often, but every now and then the gods offer up someone who is doing something for which there is no precedent. var options = { Leininger lives in Cincinnati, Ohio and uses his acquired knowledge of fakes and to help stop other forgers. He's compiled a four-inch-thick dossier that includes photos of framed fakes hanging in. MEMORIALS. If youd like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial. But when he paid a visit to the Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum in Lafayette, La., last September, he seemed more like a character sprung from a Southern Gothic novel. He reveals, "I was never good at making friends, so I drew. In the film, Landis quotes from, among other old gems, Outer Limits ("Those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear") and talks about how he and his late father "lived by the code of The Saint," as in the Roger Moore character Simon Templar from the 1960s TV show. [2] The Art Newspaper was the first of many media outlets to contact me about this case. Among famous art forgers, he's in a class by himself, says Colette Loll, an art fraud investigator. He was a diffident, artistic child who was diagnosed at age 17 with schizophrenia and institutionalized for eighteen months. Resides in Warren, MI. rightImage: data.images.right.rightImage, 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. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The collective wishful thinking of the art world unconsciously conspires to affirm the authenticity of newly-discovered works. Before monetary profit enters the thoughts of a forger for their gain, the only benefit for the professional in the collecting field is disproving the discovery of a new, potentially valuable work that comes on the market. The family lived in London, Paris and Brussels, and Mark, an only child, attended St Mary's Town and Country School, a progressive school in Swiss Cottage, for two years. (function($) { ), He also seems unaware of his own artistic gifts. beforeAfterContainer.BeforeAfter(options); rightCredit: data.images.right.rightCredit, He's thin, pale and bald and looks a little like Truman Capote. 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. I dont think well get into trouble..