[Wikimedia-l] Forgery and Wikiality

[Matthew Roth]

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 at gmail.com> wrote:

> (cross-posted from
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Newyorkbrad/Newyorkbradblog#Forgery_and_Wikiality
> )
>
> 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
> Colbert<https://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
> Signac<https://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
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-- 

Matthew Roth
Global Communications Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
+1.415.839.6885 ext 6635
www.wikimediafoundation.org
*http://blog.wikimedia.org/*