"How old is the Faux Museum?" curator/janitor Tom Richards asks. "10,003 years?"

That's certainly not true, nor is the claim that the museum is America's oldest, boasted (tongue defiantly in cheek) at the front counter and on its website.

In reality the downtown Portland museum has been around on and off since 1991, started by Richards as a "conceptual art museum" or else a "critical thinking museum with a sense of humor." By mid-January, however, the space known for its subversive exhibits will close, erasing one of the oddest attractions around town.

Richards had the idea for the museum back in 1990, then working full time at Kinkos. He opened the museum in a storefront on S.W. Ash St. in '91, closing it a year later after his wife got sick. He resurrected the Faux in 2012 in his current location on the corner of N.W. 2nd and Davis after a stint working as a librarian in Seattle.

But at the end of 2014 his lease in that building is up, and he's simply not renewing it. Only about 5 percent of his customers are from Portland, he said, meaning the slow winter months completely kill his business.

In a goodbye letter titled "Can 4,000 People Be Wrong?" Richards claims that more than 4,000 people paid to go through his odd exhibits over the years. It might sound small compared to, say, the Portland Art Museum, but the truth about the Faux Museum is that it's not quite a museum at all.

What Richards sets up can better be described as DaDaist museum-themed performance art – you really have to see it to understand.

One of his first exhibits was called "Obscenity in America," despite containing absolutely no obscenities, and over the last few years he's set up exhibits like "The Liars Hall of Shame," "Musical Chairs Cakewalk" and "Collections & Anomalies," which featured odd collections from everyday people in the community.

Everything at the Faux Museum is colored in Richards' absurd sense of humor. He once held a 0.0-mile bike ride called "Tour de Faux." He held a mock school carnival with a musical chairs cakewalk. His mascot is the "wooly ant." If you don't get it, you're trying to hard.

"I just want people to look at things differently," he said back in March.

Almost everything he did was made himself, by friends or companions. Everything was rough, handmade and intentionally misleading. The whole museum was one big prank, but Richards poured his heart and soul into it, dedicating his work to amusing and confusing tourists downtown.

As the Faux Museum winds down once again, the janitor/curator of the misleading museum opened up in a moment of honesty.

"If one wants to meet the best and the oddest people start a business," Richards said. "I was lucky. I am lucky."

The last day at the Faux Museum will be Jan. 11, 2015. Admission is $5 for adults. Richards makes no promises that the Faux won't rear its head once again.

--Jamie Hale | jhale@oregonian.com | @HaleJamesB