Mark Landis
Also known Aliases:
2009 – Steven Gardiner
2010 – Father Arthur Scott
2011 – Father James Brantley
2012 – Mark Lanois

Landis has been shopped and stopped… not by the Feds, not by Police, not by the ‘Law’… but by the best detectives out there who are registrars and collections managers that take their work seriously and even take their work home and ponder over their concerns. Should you take your work home? No… but there is not one of us out there that can say that when we have a difficult lender, logistics problems or even a difficult direct report that we do take things home with us and it can keep us up at night… not healthy and non-productive.

For years Landis and his antics have kept me thinking on a daily basis, but not keeping me up at night at this point, about if he truly will stop making the forgeries and passing them off as the real deal. Landis told me face to face on April 1, 2012 at the opening of “FAUX REAL: A Forger’s Story” at the University of Cincinnati that he would stop because he was tired and bored with what he had been doing for so long. But what keeps me on this blog and why am I still so interested in tracking Landis when he personally told me he would stop? I do not think that he can or will even to this day.

Let me ask all of you this one question: Which one of you have researched this case and have actually informed your peers and fellow staff members of Landis and the four aliases? Some are concerned about their reputation for their selves or the institution for which they are employed. Since there has been no actual crime committed and no worry to come forward why do I still believe there are more than the fifty or so institutions out there that have been scammed and will not say so? No one wants to believe they have not personally been duped nor the museum they work for has been scammed and have to admit so… especially when they know what I know and have shared and continue to give updates and refreshers over the years.

So I encourage you to look deep into your records, databases, development offices and share with your peers this strange story of Mark Augustus Landis and the one that discovered and revealed the most overzealous forger the museum field has known in years. I encourage you all to email or call me if you even have the slightest feeling of a gift from Landis or someone that resembles the forger. My contact information is on the authors page and as I always say… do your job well, keep your nose clean and you’ll be fine.

Talk soon!
Matt

Read more:

• FAUX Real – Happy New Year Trekkers
• FAUX Real: News from Art and Craft
• FAUX Real: On the Trail of an Art Forger – Art and Craft Trailer
• FAUX Real – How did I get here?
• FAUX Real: Art and Craft – The Film
• FAUX Real: On the Trail of an Art Forger – Short Notice II
• FAUX Real: On the Trail of an Art Forger – Short Notice
• FAUX Real: On the Trail of an Art Forger Part 11
  – Final Entry for 2013
• FAUX Real: On the Trail of an Art Forger Part 10
• FAUX Real: On the Trail of an Art Forger Part 9
• FAUX Real: On the Trail of an Art Forger Part 8
• FAUX Real: On the Trail of an Art Forger Part 7
• FAUX Real: On the Trail of an Art Forger Part 5
• FAUX Real: On the Trail of an Art Forger Part 4
• FAUX Real: On the Trail of an Art Forger Part 3
• FAUX Real: On the Trail of an Art Forger Part 2
• FAUX Real: On the Trail of an Art Forger Part 1