Art dealer guilty of fraud

MILLBROOK, N.Y.  — Prominent art dealer Lawrence Salander, 60, pleaded guilty on March 18 to 29 counts of grand larceny and scheming to defraud investors and artists’ estates of $120 million.

Salander owns a home in Millbrook and works at an art gallery here, called Phoenix Art.

The charges mainly stem from dealings at his Upper East Side New York City gallery, Salander-O’Reilly, which was declared bankrupt and closed in 2007.

Under a plea bargain arrangement, Salander has been promised a reduced prison sentence, of six to 18 years. However, the judge said that the length of the sentence will depend on the amount of restitution Salander is able to make to his victims.

He returns to court on Thursday, May 20, to report on his progress.

Salander told Judge Michael Obus in New York State Supreme Court last week that, “I am deeply ashamed and sorry for my actions.�

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a statement that Salander’s desire for an “extravagant lifestyle� turned longtime friends and trusted business colleagues into his “personal piggy banks.�

Salander remains free on $1 million bail and was spotted last Saturday in front of his house on Deep Hollow Road near Lithgow.

Phoenix Art, on Franklin Street at the location of the former Millbrook Department Store, was not open last weekend. Reached at his home, Salander said the gallery would be open next weekend. He did not offer any other comment.

One village merchant who wished to remain anonymous asked, “Why didn’t someone go to him and ask him to leave town? This is an embarrassment for the rest of us.�

Roland Augustine, past president of the Art Dealers Association of America and a Pine Plains resident, declined to comment beyond saying, “It’s a very sad situation.�

Salander’s legal saga began as unhappy investors — and heirs to artists’ estates handled by Salander — began filing civil lawsuits against him and his New York City gallery in 2007.

One of the 32 plaintiffs is Salander’s neighbor on Deep Hollow Road, hedge fund manager Roy Lennox, who sued for restitution of $4.6 million and damages of $10 million. The lawsuits eventually led to cancellation of “Masterpieces of Art: Five Centuries of Painting and Sculpture,� in October 2007 and the court-ordered padlocking of Salander-O’Reilly.

The ambitious showing of Old Masters featuring a newly attributed Caravaggio was intended to be Salander’s last and biggest show. Salander had said he hoped it would bring in more than $750 million and net his gallery $100 million. And then everything fell apart.

In March 2009, Salander was arrested in Millbrook and charged with a 100-count indictment that accused him of using purloined funds between July 1994 and November 2007 to finance his scheme to corner the market in Renaissance art and to support what was described as his extravagant lifestyle.

As part of Salander’s personal bankruptcy, his estate on Deep Hollow Road, straddling the towns of Washington and Amenia, has been for sale since May  2008.

The 66-acre property, where Salander has been living since November 2007, is now on the market for $4.5 million, reduced from its original listing price of $5.5 million. The property has its own indoor gym, baseball diamond, tennis court and swimming pool.

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