Famous portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln is labeled a fake

First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln in a Mathew Brady photograph. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) – A famous portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln has been labeled a fraud.

Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum curator James Cornelius said Saturday that a painting of President Abraham Lincoln’s wife that hung in the Illinois governor’s mansion for 32 years is a fake.

Illinois folklore says that Mary Todd Lincoln had Francis Carpenter secretly paint her portrait as a surprise for the 16th president, but he was assassinated before she had a chance to give it to him.

Cornelius says the portrait and the backstory appear to be a lie. He says an art restorer noted the signature on the painting appeared to have been added later.

The curator says the painting’s original subject is an anonymous woman.

Cornelius says he’ll continue to display the painting at the Springfield museum.

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AP-WF-02-12-12 1734GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln in a Mathew Brady photograph. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.