Art Of The Day Weekly
#382 - from 2 April 2015 to 8 April 2015
A genius in forgery
His case had made the headlines a few years ago. Mark Landis had flooded the museums of the South of the USA with fake works by Signac, Valtat and Picasso. Orson Welles, whose last movie F for Fake was on counterfeiter Elmer de Hory, would have liked this most un-ordinary story: the guilty man did not seek wealth but his act was actually that of a philanthropist. He presented himself under various identities - a heir seeking to honor his parents' memory or a wealthy pastor -, he would give the paintings away. As the fake paintings were not paid for, there was no penal crime. The museums that are tricked with works based on digital photocopies and coffee dredges did not wish for their naiveté to be showed out to the world. But a curator noticed the watercolor by Signac generously offered to the museum of Cincinnati already existed in two or three neighboring museums. This was the first knot he undid in this wild affair. What could be unbelievable -once again- happened, as the guilty counterfeiter collaborated with the producers. In this movie he tells the story, a rather moving one with a cocktail based on schizophrenia and family mournings. The movie shows, by the way, how sophisticated analysis techniques do not make curators infaillible…
• Le Faussaire (original title: Art & Craft) by Sam Cullman and Jennifer Grausman, in the movie theaters on 18 March 2015.