LOS ANGELES, CA — A former pawnshop owner received a community service sentence on Tuesday after confessing to deceiving investigators regarding his involvement with stolen Andy Warhol artwork.
Glenn Bednarsh, 59, formerly of Beverly Hills, pleaded guilty to providing false statements to FBI agents in federal court in downtown Los Angeles last September. On Tuesday, he was ordered to complete six weeks of community service as part of his probation.
In February 2021, Bednarsh knowingly purchased a stolen Warhol print featuring Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin for $6,000. He enlisted co-conspirator Brian Alec Light to assist in selling the stolen trial proof. Light then reached out to the Beverly Hills office of a Dallas-based auction house regarding the sale, according to federal prosecutors.
Light, 59, of Los Angeles, pleaded guilty in November 2024 to a count of interstate transportation of stolen goods. Last month, he received a sentence of probation and was ordered to pay approximately $1,915 in restitution.
Prosecutors maintain that neither Light nor Bednarsh were responsible for stealing the Warhol print — a trial proof of Lenin, which was number 44 of a total of 46 by Warhol — from a home in Los Angeles County in early 2022.
However, Light was involved in efforts to sell the stolen print, valued at around $170,000, according to prosecutors.
Authorities have not publicly identified any suspects in the theft.
After the burglary, the victim alerted law enforcement about the theft and notified the original gallery in West Hollywood that sold him the artwork, according to investigators.
“Days following the theft, the thief took the artwork to a pawnshop, which purchased it. The pawnshop owner reached out to Light for assistance in selling the artwork, which Light knew was stolen,” prosecutors allege. “Light contacted an auction house to sell the print within weeks of its theft. He advised the pawnshop owner to deliver the Warhol to the auction house in Beverly Hills for inspection and sale, which was done.”
The artwork was scheduled for auction in Dallas a few months later.
“An auction house employee in Dallas sought the gallery’s opinion on the piece,” the justice department stated in a written release. “The gallery immediately identified the piece as the stolen artwork. Consequently, the gallery informed the auction house of its stolen status and alerted the FBI.”
In March 2021, when FBI agents began asking about the stolen Warhol art, Light misled them by claiming he purchased it at a garage sale in Culver City for $18,000 and provided a fraudulent receipt, a fact he later admitted.
According to Bednarsh’s plea agreement, he confessed to lying to FBI agents by saying that Light had asked him to store the Warhol and that he complied out of friendship rather than for profit.
As part of his plea deal, Light forfeited the stolen artwork that law enforcement recovered.
City News Service contributed to this report.
