LOS ANGELES (CNS) – The owner of a Los Angeles pawnshop is expected to plead guilty Tuesday to a federal charge alleging he lied to investigators about his connection to stolen Andy Warhol art.
Glenn Bednarsh, 58, formerly of Beverly Hills, has agreed to enter a plea in downtown Los Angeles to making false statements to the FBI.
According to the indictment, Bednarsh knowingly bought a stolen Warhol trial proof depicting Soviet Union leader Vladimir Lenin in February 2021 for $6,000. He then attempted to sell it to a Dallas-based auction house.
Bednarsh allegedly asked co-conspirator Brian Light, 58, to help him sell the stolen trial proof. Light then contacted the Beverly Hills office of an auction house based in Dallas about selling the art, according to federal prosecutors.
The trial proof from the pop artist, No. 44 of only 46 made, is worth an estimated $175,000. Trial proofs allow artists to experiment with variations and adjustments before finalizing the work, and allow the printer to pause the printing operation before printing the remaining copies.
In March 2021, Bednarsh delivered the trial proof to the Beverly Hills office of the auction house, which then shipped it to Dallas, prosecutors said.
An employee of the auction house in Dallas reached out to a gallery in West Hollywood for an opinion of the piece, according to court documents. The gallery immediately recognized the piece as stolen and notified the auction house and FBI.
Later in March 2021, when FBI agents began inquiring about the stolen Warhol art, Light lied to them by saying he bought it at a Culver City garage sale for $18,000 and provided a fake receipt, federal prosecutors said.
According to his plea agreement, Bednarsh lied to FBI agents by telling them Light asked him to store the Warhol Lenin trial proof for him and that he agreed to do so out of friendship and not for financial gain.
Light pleaded guilty in November 2024 to one count of interstate transportation of stolen goods and is awaiting sentencing.
The artwork was stolen by an unknown thief — neither Bednarsh or Light — in early 2021 from the owner’s L.A. County home, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office last year. Days after the theft, the thief brought the artwork to Bednarsh’s pawnshop, where he purchased it.
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