New Jersey Man, Daughter Admit to $2M Art Fraud

The Warhol wasn't a Warhol—and that was just the start, prosecutors say. A New Jersey father and daughter admitted in federal court Tuesday that they ran a yearslong operation peddling more than 200 fake works attributed to marquee names including Andy Warhol, Andrew Wyeth, Banksy, and Picasso, pulling in over $2 million, reports the New York Times. Many of the pieces were painted in Poland, then sold with fabricated ownership histories and forged gallery stamps to make them look legitimate, according to prosecutors. Erwin Bankowski, 50, and his daughter, 26-year-old Karolina Bankowska, "painted themselves as purveyors of fine art while selling lies on canvas to unsuspecting collectors," said Joseph Nocella Jr., the US attorney in Brooklyn.

Bankowski and Bankowska pleaded guilty and each faces an expected sentence of roughly three years in prison, plus likely deportation to Poland after serving their time, notes the Times. The pair placed the counterfeits with galleries and auction houses around the US, including a Banksy-style anti-Iraq war piece that went for $2,000 and a fake Raimonds Staprans that fetched $60,000, prosecutors said. New York City art dealer Robert Rogal tells NPR that Bankowska came to his gallery last year with an alleged family heirloom, signed by Wyeth. "The provenance was a little fuzzy," he says. "But she seemed credible. It wasn't an obvious counterfeit."

The pair also drew a rare federal charge for falsely marketing works as Native American-made, including a forged landscape attributed to Richard Mayhew that netted their biggest price of $160,000. Defense lawyers said both clients accept responsibility; one called Bankowski's actions a "terrible decision to support his family."