In a significant legal development, federal prosecutors announced a guilty plea on Wednesday from a father and daughter accused of trafficking counterfeit artworks falsely attributed to renowned contemporary artists.
Erwin Bankowski, aged 50, and his 26-year-old daughter, Karolina Bankowska, now face potential prison sentences of up to 20 years each. They are also liable for restitution payments amounting to as much as $1.9 million. According to prosecutors, the pair engaged in selling fraudulent art, even fabricating fake ownership histories to make their forgeries appear authentic.
FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Barnacle emphasized the severity of their actions, stating, “These individuals didn’t just sell forgeries—they violated trust, exploited unsuspecting buyers, and sought to profit through deceit. This case underscores the FBI’s commitment to rooting out those who corrupt the art market for personal gain, ensuring they are brought to justice.”
The Department of Justice detailed that between 2020 and 2025, the father-daughter team orchestrated the consignment of over 200 counterfeit artworks to auctions. These pieces were fraudulently attributed to prominent artists.
An alleged forgery resembling an Andrew Wyeth painting was displayed at RoGallery in New York on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, highlighting the extent of the fraud.
The list of artists whose names were falsely used includes icons like Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Banksy, Raimonds Staprans, Richard Mayhew, and the Native American artist Fritz Scholder.
“To make some of the Counterfeit Works appear to be legitimate, the defendants generated false histories of prior custody and ownership, also known as provenance. To do so, they conducted research to represent falsely that some of the Counterfeit Works had been in private collections of individuals associated with the artists, had been owned by since-closed art galleries, or had been in the private collections of corporations that were no longer in operation,” the DOJ wrote.
“The defendants chose galleries and corporations that were no longer operating to make it difficult for galleries and potential buyers to verify the purported provenance of the Counterfeit Works,” the statement added.
The DOJ says the defendants consigned the fake pieces to art galleries and auction houses throughout the U.S., which then attempted to sell them to buyers for prices of up to $160,000. Over the course of their scheme, the defendants defrauded victims out of at least $2 million.
The father and daughter — Polish citizens living in New Jersey — pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and misrepresenting Native American–produced goods, the latter charge stemming from their duplication of the Luiseño artist, Fritz Scholder.
In court on Tuesday, Bankowska told a judge that her “conduct was wrong and I am guilty.” Her attorney, Todd Spodek, said his client had placed more than $1 million in an escrow account.
Through a Polish interpreter, Erwin Bankowski also apologized. His attorney, Jeffrey Chabrowe, added that his client had “regrettably made a terrible decision in an effort to support his family.”
