Former Beverly Hills resident tried to sell stolen Warhol: DOJ

A former Beverly Hills resident has been indicted for allegedly trying to sell a stolen proof by Andy Warhol.

The piece, a trial proof showing Vladimir Lenin, is worth about $175,000, but Glenn Steven Bednarsh, 58, now a Farmington, Michigan, resident but who formerly lived in Beverly Hills, bought it for only $6,000 in February 2021, the United States Department of Justice said in a news release.

“Bednarsh allegedly asked a co-conspirator, Brian Alec Light, 58, of Hudson, Ohio, and formerly a resident of downtown Los Angeles, to help him sell the stolen Warhol Lenin trial proof,” prosecutors said.

The piece was reported stolen to the FBI when Bednarsh sent it to an auction house that then asked a West Hollywood gallery for its appraisal. The gallery “immediately” knew it was a stolen piece, prosecutors added.

“Later in March 2021, when FBI agents began inquiring about the stolen Warhol trial proof, Light lied to them by saying he bought it at a Culver City garage sale for $18,000 and provided a fake receipt,” the release added.

Bednarsh also tried to argue that he was holding the proof for Light “out of friendship and not for financial gain,” but the FBI determined that was a lie.

Light pleaded guilty last year to one count of interstate transportation of stolen goods.

He’s faces up to 10 years in federal prison, and he’s scheduled to be sentenced on May 27.

Bednarsh, meanwhile, faces charges of conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen goods.

He’s expected to be arraigned in downtown Los Angeles “in the coming weeks,” prosecutors said.