A suspected forgery of an Andrew Wyeth portray is seen at RoGallery in New York, Tuesday, April 28, 2026.
Jake Offenhartz/AP
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Jake Offenhartz/AP
NEW YORK — Just a little over a yr in the past, the New York Metropolis artwork seller Robert Rogal obtained a go to to his personal showroom from a younger girl, who appeared keen to dump a household heirloom.
Introducing herself as Karolina Bankowska, she carried a framed portray signed by Andrew Wyeth, resembling the watercolor landscapes the celebrated artist had accomplished early in his profession. Intrigued, Rogal accepted the piece on consignment, figuring it’d fetch between $20,000 to $30,000 at public sale.
“The provenance was a bit fuzzy,” he mentioned. “However she appeared credible. It wasn’t an apparent counterfeit.”
In truth, Rogal now believes the portray was a pretend — one in all at the least 200 rigorously designed imitations that federal prosecutors say Bankowska, 26, and her father Erwin Bankowski, 50, tried to move off to unwitting consumers.
On Tuesday, the duo pleaded responsible to defrauding their victims — together with a few of New York Metropolis’s most distinguished superb artwork public sale homes — of at the least $2 million.
The counterfeits, which had been solid in Poland by an unnamed co-conspirator, had been usually reproductions of lesser-known works by distinguished and prolific artists, like Banksy and Andy Warhol, prosecutors mentioned. Their most worthwhile pretend, purportedly by the artist Richard Mayhew, was bought by the public sale home DuMouchelles final October for $160,000.
A consultant for DuMouchelles mentioned that they had cooperated with federal authorities however weren’t licensed to debate the sale additional. A number of different public sale homes focused within the scheme, together with Bonhams, Phillips, Freeman’s and Vintage Area, both declined or didn’t reply to inquiries.
The daddy and daughter — Polish residents residing in New Jersey — face expenses of wire fraud conspiracy and misrepresenting Native American–produced items, a cost stemming from their duplication of the Luiseño artist, Fritz Scholder.
They face the potential of greater than three years in jail underneath federal pointers, along with $1.9 million in restitution and attainable deportation to Poland.
In court docket on Tuesday, Bankowska instructed a choose that her “conduct was fallacious and I’m responsible.” Her lawyer, Todd Spodek, mentioned his shopper had positioned greater than $1 million in an escrow account.
By a Polish interpreter, Erwin Bankowski additionally apologized. His lawyer, Jeffrey Chabrowe, added that his shopper had “regrettably made a horrible determination in an effort to assist his household.”
As information of the fakes reverberated across the artwork world, consultants described the scheme as a traditional of the style — one that’s way more prevalent than some within the trade wish to admit.
“The one uncommon factor about this case is that the forgers received caught,” mentioned Erin Thompson, a professor of artwork crime on the Metropolis College of New York.
“Folks consider the artwork world as a genteel place stuffed with cultured individuals who simply wish to share the surprise of lovely artwork,” she added. “It’s best to assume there are much more fakes on the market.”
Prosecutors mentioned the daddy and daughter started commissioning a Polish artist in 2020 to create the pretend artworks. Utilizing vintage paper, in addition they solid stamps to connect to the work, adopting the names of since-shuttered galleries the place a given artist might need plausibly proven their work.
It wasn’t lengthy earlier than the gross sales started to attract scrutiny. In March 2023, representatives for the artist Raimonds Staprans caught wind of a solid portray, “Triple Boats,” on the market by an public sale home. A couple of days after the reps contacted the public sale home, the portray bought to a purchaser for $60,000, prosecutors mentioned.
Thompson, the professor of artwork crime, seen different irregularities as properly. The gallery stamp on the again of the faked Wyeth, for instance, listed its yr as 1976, however included a zoning deal with quantity that had been phased out in 1962.
Coincidentally, maybe, the pretend stamp bore the identify and deal with for M. Knoedler & Co. Considered one of New York’s oldest and most esteemed industrial galleries, Knoedler closed down in 2011 amid allegations of benefiting from forgeries of work by Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and others.
In the end, Rogal mentioned he by no means listed the Wyeth, partially as a result of the stamp on the again was “too clear.” When he known as Bankowska and instructed her to select it up, she by no means responded.
On Tuesday, in a Queens warehouse brimming with consigned artwork items, Rogal reexamined the portray underneath the sunshine.
“You attempt to do a service and supply it accurately,” he mentioned. “Can we be fooled? Completely.”
