Father-daughter duo pleads guilty in fake Warhols, Banksys scheme

Summary

A father and daughter pleaded guilty in federal court in New York after prosecutors said they used fake artworks of famous artists to defraud buyers, including art dealers and auction houses, out of at least $2 million. The case involves Karolina Bankowska, 26, and her father, Erwin Bankowski, 50, both Polish citizens living in New Jersey, prosecutors said. They entered their guilty pleas in court on Tuesday.

Prosecutors said the scheme relied on what they described as carefully designed imitations that were meant to pass for works by major names. The AP reported that the forgeries included imitations of artists such as Banksy and Andy Warhol, and prosecutors said the pair tried to pass off the counterfeits to unwitting buyers.

Federal prosecutors said the pair tried to sell at least 200 carefully designed imitations. The forgeries, AP reported, were forged in Poland by an unnamed co-conspirator and were often reproductions of lesser-known works by prominent and prolific artists.

One of the most profitable fakes, prosecutors said, was purportedly by Richard Mayhew and was sold by DuMouchelles last October for $160,000. DuMouchelles’ representative said the company cooperated with federal authorities but declined to discuss the sale further, the AP reported. Other auction houses that prosecutors said were targeted—including Bonhams, Phillips, Freeman’s and Antique Arena—either declined or did not respond to inquiries, according to the report.

The defendants also faced charges tied not only to wire fraud conspiracy, prosecutors said, but to misrepresenting Native American–produced goods. The charge stemmed from their duplication of the Luiseño artist Fritz Scholder, the AP reported.

In the courtroom, Bankowska told the judge that her “conduct was wrong and I am guilty.” Her attorney, Todd Spodek, told the court that she had placed more than $1 million in an escrow account, according to the AP report. Through a Polish interpreter, Bankowski apologized, his attorney, Jeffrey Chabrowe, said he had “regrettably made a terrible decision in an effort to support his family,” the report said.

The AP report traced the scheme’s reach to at least one art dealer who accepted a work on consignment. Robert Rogal said he received a visit to his private showroom from a young woman who introduced herself as Karolina Bankowska and offered a framed painting signed by Andrew Wyeth. Rogal said he accepted the piece on consignment because he believed it might sell for between $20,000 and $30,000 at auction, adding that the provenance was “a little fuzzy” but that it did not appear to be an obvious counterfeit.

Rogal later concluded the painting was fake, the AP report said, and he pointed to warning signs that emerged when the work was examined more closely. After Rogal called Bankowska to pick up the piece, she did not respond, the report said. On Tuesday, in a Queens warehouse with consigned art pieces, Rogal reexamined the painting under light and said, “You try to do a service and provide it correctly,” adding, “Can we be fooled? Absolutely.”

Prosecutors said the defendants began commissioning a Polish artist in 2020 to create the fake artworks and also forged stamps to attach to paintings. The report said the defendants used stamps and adopted the names of since-shuttered galleries where an artist might have plausibly shown their work.

The AP report said scrutiny began after a forged painting came to attention in March 2023. Representatives for Raimonds Staprans caught wind of a forged painting, “Triple Boats,” for sale by an auction house and, days after they contacted the auction house, the painting sold to a buyer for $60,000, prosecutors said. The AP also reported that Erin Thompson, a professor of art crime at the City University of New York, identified irregularities in other items, including a gallery stamp on the back of the faked Wyeth with an address number she said had been phased out in 1962. The professor noted that stamp bore the name and address for M. Knoedler & Co., an older gallery that closed in 2011 amid allegations involving forgeries.

Thompson told the AP that the only unusual aspect of the case was that the forgers were caught, saying, “The only unusual thing about this case is that the forgers got caught.” She added that people should assume there are “a lot more fakes out there,” and framed the case as an example of how convincing counterfeits can be within the art market.

Under federal guidelines, Bankowska and Bankowski face the possibility of more than three years in prison, in addition to $1.9 million in restitution and possible deportation to Poland, the AP reported.