NJ Father, Daughter Plead Guilty in $2M Art Fraud

A father and daughter from New Jersey pleaded guilty in federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday to operating a multiyear scheme that flooded art galleries and auction houses with more than 200 counterfeit paintings falsely attributed to renowned artists, defrauding buyers of at least $2 million.

Erwin Bankowski, 50, and Karolina Bankowska, 26, both Polish citizens, admitted to charges of wire fraud conspiracy and misrepresenting Native American-produced goods. The latter charge related to fakes attributed to artists including Luiseño painter Fritz Scholder and Richard Mayhew, who had Native American heritage. Prosecutors said the pair commissioned an unnamed artist in Poland starting in 2020 to replicate lesser-known works by artists such as Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Banksy and Raimonds Staprans. They consigned the forgeries to auction houses and galleries across the United States, where some sold for prices up to $160,000.

To lend credibility to the counterfeits, the defendants fabricated detailed ownership histories, or provenances, claiming the pieces had passed through private collections linked to the artists, defunct galleries or shuttered corporate holdings. These choices...