"Banksy, Warhol, Picasso" — Dad-Daughter Duo Admit to $2 Million Fake Art Scheme

Everyone knows that the fine art market is basically a high-class racket for tax evasion and insurance scams. But there's also a lot of money to be made from crooks who are foisting inauthentic works of art on private sellers in the hopes of bolstering their own bank accounts.

And one father-daughter duo was caught doing just that with a fake art scheme that purportedly netted the duo "at least $2 million," according to NBC 4 New York.

According to the NY Daily News, the two passed falsified works from "Banksy, Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, and others to unsuspecting buyers." The perpetrators, who came clean before a Brooklyn court about their activities, were identified as Erwin and Karolina Bankowska.

They worked in tandem with an art forger in Poland, who procured "more than 200 fake pieces between 2020 and 2025."

Additionally, the two apparently crafted an ingenious way to cover the tracks of the fake paintings. The inauthentic works were either listed as being a part of art galleries that were long-closed or as part of collections from "dissolved corporations."

This way, anyone looking into learning about the origins of the paintings was met with dead ends. The dad and daughter forged art sellers could potentially spend up to 3 and 1/2 years in prison, in addition to having to fork over "$1.9 million in restitution," NY Daily News penned.

Federal prosecutors delineated the pair's Modus operandi in their filing, stating that the two had clearly defined roles. Erwin would devote time to learning about the lives of the artists whose pretend-work he was attempting to sell.

He added another layer to the con by cross-referencing the time periods in which the closed-down art galleries and corporations were operable.

Karolina would then perform further research on the galleries, locating images of their certificates of authenticity. The forger they worked with in Poland would then photoshop convincing fake certificates. But they took the con even further by purchasing old books.

The reason why these items were so crucial to their con shows how conscientious Erwin and Karolina were: the aged paper from the books was imprinted with the forged certificates.

This way, anyone receiving the counterfeit works had more visual cues that may convince them the fake work was genuine.

The court case also highlights that Erwin and Karolina may not be the only ones who participated in wrongdoing, either. An art gallery, which wasn't named in the court's paperwork, allegedly sold a counterfeit Raimond Staprans painting for $60,000, with full knowledge that it wasn't the real deal.

In October of 2025, one auction buyer dropped $160,000 for a fake Richard Mayhew work. Mayhew was an American landscape artist who passed away in September 2024.

Todd Spodek, a defense attorney for Bankowska, discussed his client's willingness to right her wrongs and a desire to set things right.

"At just 26, Karolina Bankowska has accepted full responsibility, placed all funds into escrow for return, and is taking real steps toward accountability. This case is no longer about the mistakes she made, but about ensuring Judge Garaufis sees her genuine remorse, rehabilitation, and the powerful possibility of redemption."

Jeffrey Chabrowe, who represented Erwin in court, said that the man's decision to sell the fake art work came out of a financial need. "Mr. Bankowski, regrettably, made a terrible decision to support his family but now is doing everything in his power to right those wrongs and accept responsibility for his actions."