Mark Landis American artist, forger Date of Birth: 10.03.1955 Country: USA

1. American artist, art forger
2. Early Life and Artistic Interests
3. Entering the Art World
4. The Forgeries
5. The Discovery
6. Legacy

American artist, art forger

Mark Landis is an American artist who gained fame for donating his own forged paintings to various museums across the United States for several decades. He was born on March 10, 1955, in Norfolk, Virginia. His grandfather was once the director of 'Auburn Automobile', a car company that closed during the Great Depression due to its lack of profitability. Mark's father, an officer in the U.S. Navy, was transferred to Europe during his youth. As a result, the Landis family lived in Paris, London, and Brussels.

Early Life and Artistic Interests

When Mark was 17 years old, his father unexpectedly passed away, which had a significant impact on his life. He spent 18 months in a hospital in Kansas, where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. It was during this time that he developed an interest in art. After being discharged from the hospital, he attended art courses at the Art Institute of Chicago and later worked in San Francisco, where he learned the art of painting restoration.

Entering the Art World

Mark decided to try his hand at selling paintings and purchased a small art gallery. However, his business quickly failed. At the age of 30, he returned to his family home. Before leaving, he decided to honor his father's memory by donating one of his paintings, a copy of Maynard Dixon's artwork, to the California museum. Surprisingly, the museum did not identify the forgery, marking the success of Mark's first prank.

The Forgeries

Over the next 20 years, Mark diligently worked on creating new paintings. During this time, he donated a vast number of his forged artworks to over 50 American museums. Each time, he would invent a new story and name for himself. Museum owners were thrilled to acquire what they believed to be genuine masterpieces and rarely had time to thoroughly verify Mark's documents. Mark would frequently move, combining his hobby with work in advertising and animation. He targeted smaller museums that did not conduct rigorous checks on the artwork they received, with the condition that the painting be displayed in the museum's main exhibition. Museum owners gladly agreed to his terms.

The Discovery

Doubts about the authenticity of Mark's paintings first arose at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, to which he donated several artworks. Registrars and restorers discovered that the same painting by Paul Signac had been recently donated to another museum, the SCAD Museum of Art. Copies of other donated paintings were later found in different museums across the country. In September 2010, posing as a Jesuit priest, Mark attempted to donate a forgery of Charles Courtney Curran's painting to the Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum. Only after a thorough investigation was the forgery uncovered.

Legacy

The investigation into Mark's forgeries continued until the police and FBI encountered the issue that he had not actually broken any laws. The fact that museum owners across the country were unable to expose his forgeries over a 20-year period could be attributed to their carelessness and excessive trust. In May and April 2012, the Dorothy W. and C. Lawson Reed Jr. Gallery held the first exhibition of Mark Landis's forged paintings called 'Faux Real'. The exhibition aimed to draw attention to the notion that sometimes forgery can be considered genuine art.