I have the pdf of the article if anyone wants it. Email me offlist and I'll send it to you.
Matthew
On Fri, Sep 6, 2013 at 3:17 PM, Newyorkbrad newyorkbrad@gmail.com wrote:
(cross-posted from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Newyorkbrad/Newyorkbradblog#Forgery_and_W... )
FORGERY AND WIKIALITY
We've all read about people manipulating their, or their friends' (or worse their enemies') biographies on Wikipedia. We also all heard about people molding Wikipedia to fit the world as they wish it were, rather than the world as it is—what Stephen Colberthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Colbert, in exaggerated form, calls "Wikipediality."
Alex Wilkinson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Wilkinson reported an interesting example of this phenomenon in his article "The Giveaway" in last week's *New Yorker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Yorker*. (A link to the *New Yorker* article is here<http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/08/26/130826fa_fact_wilkinson
—
full text for *New Yorker* subscribers, the first two paragraphs for others. I recommend it.)
The article is about a 58-year-old man named Mark Landis. Mr. Landis lives in Laurel, Mississippi <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurel,_Mississippi
.
For a time during his childhood, he attended St. Mary's Town and Country School <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Mary%27s_Town_and_Country_School
in
London https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London.
According to the article, dozens of times over past 25 years, Mr. Landis has walked into a museum and donated what he described as a valuable but previously unknown artwork. He describes the pieces as the work of a reknowned artist, though not one of the very best known artists (Paul Signachttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Signac, Stanislas Lépine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislas_L%C3%A9pine, Hans von Aachen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_von_Aachen, Alfred Jacob Miller https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Jacob_Miller are examples). And every time, it turns out that Mr. Landis created the artwork himself, and used classic art forgers' techniques to make the piece appear older than it was.
This sort of art forgery raises well-known questions ("is this work of art the less meaningful or beautiful because it was created by Shlabotnik rather than Renoir?"). But certainly the museum world sees quite a difference between the work of a great or near-great artist and even the most faithful re-creation or simulation of one, and does not appreciate his contributions. Since Landis never requested or accepted any payment for his donations, and apparently never even took a tax deduction for them, he hasn't been charged with any crimes. Wilkinson discusses Landis's motivations, but he workings of his mind remain unclear. What is clear is that Landis wants very much to be thought of as an art dealer, and as a philanthropist.
The relevance to Wikipedia? We have an article about this individual, Mark A. Landis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_A._Landis, which details his history of art forgeries—but Wilkinson's *New Yorker* article doesn't mention that article. What it does mention is this: *One of the things [Landis] likes to do is check the Wikipedia article for Laurel, where he was described as a notable resident, and the one for St. Mary's, where he was an art dealer and a philanthropist. Late in 2010, he saw that the listing under Laurel had been altered, "to something derogatory," he said....*
And Wilkinson's article concludes: *After lunch ... Landis was in good spirits. I'd seen him happier only once, a few days before, when we checked the Wikipedia page for St. Mary's. He hadn't looked for some time. He almost winced as he scrolled down the page. Then his face broke into a grin. "Hey, I'm still there," he said. "Art dealer and philanthrophist."**He turned the computer toward me so that I could read the entry, then he leaned over to be sure his printer was on so he could make a copy. "Otherwise, somebody might say something bad about me and change it," he said. "And then I won't be an art dealer and a philanthropist any more."*
Food for thought....
Newyorkbrad _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe