hurrengoa
the jesuit forger´s long brush aitor azurki   A revolution through forgery. During the last three decades forger Mark Landis has slipped dozens of forged paintings into museums in the States. Without getting a single dollar for them. He’s one of the greatest contemporary forgers. The painter Gaugin said that art is either plagiarism or revolution; but what happens when you work on both at the same time? That is what forger Mark Augustus Landis (Virginia, USA, 1955) has managed to do, whether he really wanted to or not. He’s caused quite a stir in the States with his copies of famous works of art. “The most productive of our contemporary art forgers” is how the New York Times describes him. He’s even had the FBI after him. In fact, he’s taken in loads of institutions in the States over the last two decades using his parents’ names and forgeries of paintings by Picasso, Daumier, Signac and others. Using his parent’s names, what a liar! However, Landis isn’t in prison: apparently he hasn’t committed any crime. But how is that possible? Here’s the story:

There’s no doubt that registrar Matthew Leininger’s name will always be linked with Mark Landis. In 2007 Leininger was the registrar at Oklahoma Arts Museum. One day a mysterious man donated a paining by Louis Valvat. The man was Landis. At first Leininger was delighted. But when he actually met Landis he suspected that there was some hidden purpose: he seemed a pretty strange man. Very suspicious. So Leininger decided to look into the “case”, amongst other things by calling museums all over the States. And the results were immediate: the very work that strange man had given Oklahoma Museum was also at the Savannah Art and Design University. The deceit was uncovered: dozens of famous artists’ paintings were to be found in many small institutions all over the USA, all of them donated by Landis over the previous two decades.

As if that weren’t enough, the forger used four different nicknames between 2009 and 2012 to further embellish his lies: Steven Gardiner, Mark Lanois, Arthur Scott and James Brantley, the latter two being Jesuit priests. In the name of the Church, what a liar! He took his deception to every corner of the States. Astonished, Leininger asked himself the same question we all have: Why? In fact, Landis had never earned a penny with all this activity. That’s why it wasn’t a crime. And that’s why the police cannot arrest Landis. Some people say he did it to make his parents famous because he often used their names. In the name of honour, what a liar!

Is he a philanthropist?

So the second question is, is he a philanthropist? There’s nobody better than the man himself to answer that one: “I don’t care about seeing things. I’ve already seen everything. Are the things they say are good all that good? Yes, they may be good”. In the name of philanthropy, what a liar! They say he’s being treated for schizophrenia. Now, apparently, he’s a manic-depressive.

The third question quickly follows: “How many institutions has he taken in?” There are 17,000 institutions in the US, so who knows! Many of them already know that Landis took them in but
have kept quiet about it so as not to admit that they put their foot in it.

In 2011 The Financial Times published a story about this con trick along with Landis’ confession. But that didn’t put a stop to Landis’ enthusiasm for taking people in, rather the opposite: he’s still at it, now using a fifth nickname. The biggest contemporary art forger is still at it. Free. Ready to deceive. Who will be next? Watch out!