Two New Jersey residents, Erwin Bankowski and his daughter Karolina Bankowska, pleaded guilty to running a counterfeit art scheme that funneled over 200 fake works into the legitimate market between 2020 and 2025. The pair consigned forgeries attributed to artists including Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Banksy, and Luiseño artist Fritz Scholder to galleries and auction houses across the United States, defrauding buyers of at least $2 million. They fabricated ownership histories, forged gallery stamps and certificates of authenticity using antique books and aged paper, and now face up to 20 years in prison plus restitution.
The case matters because it highlights vulnerabilities in the mid-tier art market, where due diligence is often uneven and provenance claims are accepted at face value. It also underscores growing federal scrutiny of misrepresentation of Native American-produced goods, as some works were falsely attributed to Native American artists like Scholder. The scheme not only cheated buyers but also undermined the cultural marketplace and stole from Native American artists, according to authorities.