New Jersey father and daughter plead guilty to years-long counterfeiting scheme which tricked art galleries and auction houses into buying fake paintings presented as works by famous artists such as Andy Warhol, Banksy and Pablo Picasso, reports “The Guardian”.
Federal prosecutors said Ervin Bankovski (50) and Karolina Bankovska (26) hired an artist from Poland to make at least 200 fakes and ended up defrauding buyers for at least two million dollars.
Fake works were often copies of lesser-known works by prominent artists. The most profitable fake painting – purported to be the work of artist Richard Mayhew – was sold by DuMouchelles auction house last October for $160,000. A representative for Dimuschels said it was cooperating with federal authorities, but was not authorized to provide additional information about the sale.
Several other auction houses targeted by the scam – including Bonhams, Phillips, Freemans and Antiques Arena – either declined to comment or did not respond to enquiries.
Both father and daughter apologized in a New York court on Tuesday. Under federal guidelines, they face more than three years in prison, an obligation to pay back about $1.9 million and the possibility of deportation to Poland.
Bankovska told the judge that “behavior was wrong and she is guilty of that.” Her attorney, Todd Spodek, said she had already put more than $1 million into a separate account.
Through a Polish translator, Erwin Bankovski also apologized. His attorney, Jeffrey Chabrow, added that his client “unfortunately made a poor decision in an effort to support his family.”
As word of the forgeries spread through the art world, experts described the scheme as a classic example of this type of fraud.
“The only unusual thing about this case is that the forgers were caught,” said Erin Thompson, a professor of art-related crime at the City University of New York.
“People often think that the art world is a sophisticated place full of cultured people who want to share the beauty of art. One has to assume that there are a lot more fakes than you think.”
Prosecutors said the father and daughter began hiring an unnamed artist from Poland in 2020 to make the forgeries. They used antique paper and made fake stamps that they put on the paintings, using names of already closed galleries where a certain artist could credibly exhibit.
The sales soon began to raise doubts. In March 2023, representatives of the artist Raymonds Stapprans became aware of a forged painting titled “Three Boats” that was being sold through an auction house. A few days after they contacted the house, the painting was still sold to a buyer for $60,000.
Thompson also noticed other irregularities. For example, the stamp on the back of one fake image stated the year 1976, but contained an address number that had ceased to be used as early as 1962.
