Father-daughter duo plead guilty in $2M counterfeit art scheme
Erwin Bankowsk, 50, and his 26-year-old daughter Karolina Bankowska pleaded guilty to their charges in Brooklyn federal court.
Law and Crime
A Polish father and daughter in New Jersey have pleaded guilty in Brooklyn federal court after they were arrested on charges accusing them of orchestrating a yearslong scheme to sell counterfeit artworks falsely attributed to some of the most recognizable names in modern and contemporary art.
Erwin Bankowsk, 50, and his 26-year-old daughter Karolina Bankowska consigned more than 200 fake artworks to galleries and auction houses across the United States, claiming they were created by artists including Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Banksy and Fritz Scholder.
They each face a possible sentence of more than three years in prison under federal guidelines, deportation to Poland and $1.9 million in restitution.
Federal prosecutors said the scheme, which began in 2020, generated at least $2 million in proceeds. They were charged with wire fraud conspiracy and, in connection with works attributed to Scholder, misrepresentation of Indian-produced goods.
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Court Documents: Father, daughter charged in counterfeit plot
Records from U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Adam Schrader
“Selling fake Native American art is a serious crime, and our Special Agents investigate these cases to hold offenders accountable and protect authentic Indian artists, their work, and their livelihoods,” said Doug Ault, assistant director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in a statement.
The father-daughter duo worked with at least one co-conspirator based in Poland, who was paid to create artworks in the styles of well-known artists and forge signatures before the works were shipped to the United States.
Authorities said the Bankowskis also fabricated detailed provenance records to make the works appear legitimate. That included researching defunct galleries and dissolved companies to falsely claim the works had passed through credible collections, making verification difficult for buyers and auction houses.
In some instances, the pair went further by forging certificates of authenticity. The scheme involved creating fake gallery stamps and imprinting them onto aged paper taken from antique books, which were then attached to the works to bolster their credibility.
The works were consigned to galleries and auction houses nationwide and offered for sale through online platforms, sometimes with prices reaching as high as $150,000, according to the court documents.
Prosecutors described multiple sales tied to the alleged scheme. In March 2023, a work purportedly by Raimonds Staprans was sold for about $60,000, even after a representative for the artist informed the gallery it was fake and provided a signed statement to that effect. That gallery was not identified in the court documents.
Other examples cited include a purported Warhol that sold for about $5,500 in May 2023 and a sculpture attributed to Vietnamese artist Vu Cao Dam that sold for approximately $32,000 in April 2024.
In June 2025, a purported painting by Richard Mayhew was consigned to the Detroit auction house DuMouchelles and later sold for approximately $160,000. A DuMouchelles representative told the Associated Press that the company cooperated with the investigation but declined to comment further.
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