Video: businessman Thomas Kinkade dies in CA at 54

Kinkades website

Businessman Thomas Kinkade, who so successfully marketed lithographed paintings he made himself that they were said to have been displayed in 1 of 20 US homes, has died at 54 in his Los Gatos home of undetermined causes. Kinkade was known to drink heavily.

His Media Arts Group company was taking in $32 million per quarter from 4,500 dealers 10 years ago before he took it private. In 2010 Kinkade's manufacturing business, Pacific Metro filed for Chapter 11. In 2009 the LA Times reported that the FBI was investigating Kinkade on suspicion that he fraudulently induced investors and then financially ruined them.

Aside from lithographs frequently augmented with hand-painted "highlights" — and sold at extra cost — Kinkade marketed other products such as his books, plates, snowglobes and rugs. Housing developments in California and Idaho have been built based on the appearance of homes in his paintings.

Some art critics have described his work as "tacky."