MIAMI ART DEALER GETS PRISON TERM FOR SELLING FORGED WARHOLS

A Miami federal court sentenced art dealer Leslie Howard Roberts to three years and 10 months in prison for a scheme involving forged Andy Warhol artworks. US district judge Roy Altman imposed the sentence on 2 October. Roberts pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The court ordered him to repay nearly $2.6m obtained through the scheme. Roberts owned Miami Fine Art Gallery in Coconut Grove and was arrested in April 2025.

Prosecutors said Roberts sold the works through his gallery and falsely claimed he had acquired them from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The US justice department said he supplied invoices that appeared to come from the foundation, as well as false authentication documents and counterfeit stamps. Investigators said Carlos Rodriguez Melendez posed as an employee of a New York-based auction company and falsely authenticated the works. Rodriguez Melendez also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and received probation. Warhol was an American artist and filmmaker associated with the pop art movement.

Jason Reding Quiñones, the US attorney for the Southern District of Florida, said Roberts “exploited the trust that collectors place in art dealers and the authenticity of the works they purchase”. In a separate case, South Florida dealer Daniel Elie Bouaziz received a prison sentence in 2023 after pleading guilty to money laundering connected to fake Warhol works. Erwin Bankowski and Karolina Bankowska also pleaded guilty to commissioning an artist in Poland to make at least 200 works falsely attributed to Warhol, Banksy and Pablo Picasso. Prosecutors said that scheme defrauded buyers of at least $2m.