Overview
- Erwin Bankowski and Karolina Bankowska, who admitted guilt in Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday, pleaded to wire fraud conspiracy and to misrepresenting Native-produced goods.
- Prosecutors say the pair slipped more than 200 fake works into U.S. galleries and auction houses from 2020 to 2025, taking in roughly $2 million from pieces attributed to artists including Andy Warhol, Banksy, Pablo Picasso, Richard Mayhew and Fritz Scholder.
- They made the fakes look real by inventing ownership histories and attaching forged gallery stamps and certificates created with custom stamps on aged paper taken from antique books.
- Many counterfeits were commissioned from an artist in Poland, and one of the most lucrative sales was a painting falsely linked to Richard Mayhew that DuMouchelles sold for $160,000.
- The defendants face up to 20 years in prison, at least $1.9 million in restitution and possible deportation after sentencing on August 5, with officials stressing the harm to Native artists and the market’s reliance on provenance that often goes unchecked.