Brooklyn Guilty Pleas Expose a $2 Million Counterfeit Art Scheme
A father and daughter from New Jersey admitted in federal court in Brooklyn that they spent years feeding fake artworks into the legitimate market, using forged paperwork and false attributions to move more than 200 counterfeit pieces through galleries and auction houses across the United States. Prosecutors say the scheme, which ran from 2020 to 2025, defrauded buyers of at least $2 million.
Erwin Bankowski, 50, and Karolina Bankowska, 26, pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and misrepresenting Native American-produced goods, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. They now face up to 20 years in prison and at least $1.9 million in restitution.
The works were presented as if they were by blue-chip names including Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Banksy, and Luiseño artist Fritz Scholder. Some were offered for as much as $160,000, placing them in a market tier where provenance can carry as much weight as the object itself. That is precisely where prosecutors say the defendants exploited weakness: by attaching convincing stories to the works, they made the fakes appear plausible enough to pass through ordinary channels of sale.
According to investigators, the pair fabricated ownership histories that linked the pieces to private collections, galleries, and corporate holdings that no longer existed. They also produced forged gallery stamps and certificates of authenticity, in some cases using antique books and aged paper to make the documents look archival.
The case carries an additional cultural dimension because some of the false attributions involved Native American artists, including Scholder. Doug Ault of the US Fish and Wildlife Service said the scheme did more than deceive buyers. “This artwork scheme doesn’t just cheat buyers,” he said. “It steals from Native American artists and undermines the integrity of an entire cultural marketplace.”
The guilty pleas underscore how counterfeit art cases increasingly hinge on paperwork as much as on paint, and how easily a fabricated provenance can distort trust in the secondary market.
