Back to today’s briefing

Story perspectives

Polish Father-Daughter Plead Guilty to $2 M Art Fraud

5/1/2026

39 6 Full Breakdown

Summary

Bankowski Duo Sells Forgeries

Erwin Bankowski and daughter Karolina Bankowska pleaded guilty Tuesday to selling more than 200 counterfeit artworks.
The forgeries, painted in Poland with false provenance, copied Warhol, Wyeth and Banksy and generated over $2 million, including a $160,000 fake Richard Mayhew landscape marketed as Native American-made.
Both face an expected three-year prison term and probable deportation to Poland.

Summary

FBI Targets Forgeries

FBI Assistant Director James C. Barnacle warned that art-market manipulators will be caught and held accountable.
Investigators found the duo forged certificates of authenticity by imprinting custom-made stamps on antique books.
Todd Spodek disclosed that more than $1 million of the proceeds was placed in an escrow account.
A counterfeit work purportedly by Andy Warhol sold for $5,500, showing the scheme’s price range.

Summary

Thompson Warns Forgeries

Professor Erin Thompson warned the case shows pervasive art forgeries and urged the industry to assume many more fakes exist.
She noted the forged stamp on the fake Wyeth bore the name M. Knoedler & Co., a New York gallery that closed in 2011.
Thompson said the counterfeit Wyeth’s back stamp listed 1976 but used a zoning address phased out in 1962, illustrating how outdated details expose fraud.

History

Historical Context

After Dutch painter Han van Meegeren was arrested in 1945 and convicted by the Amsterdam Regional Court in 1947, receiving a one-year sentence for forging a Vermeer sold to Nazi leader Hermann Göring, his scandal spurred tighter provenance checks that echo in today’s FBI probes across international law-enforcement agencies of forged art certificates.

1 of 4

Bankowski Duo Sells Forgeries

Erwin Bankowski and daughter Karolina Bankowska pleaded guilty Tuesday to selling more than 200 counterfeit artworks.
The forgeries, painted in Poland with false provenance, copied Warhol, Wyeth and Banksy and generated over $2 million, including a $160,000 fake Richard Mayhew landscape marketed as Native American-made.
Both face an expected three-year prison term and probable deportation to Poland.

1 / 4