The Salander Chronologies

NEW YORK—In what has become one of the biggest scandals to hit the New York art world in recent years, dozens of people are suing Salander-O'Reilly Galleries and its director, Lawrence Salander, for as-yet-untold millions in money and missing paintings. The gallery itself has been shut down—its locks changed on order of a judge—and the Manhattan district attorney's office is investigating possible criminal charges. As the dizzying financial and legal problems facing Salander-O'Reilly continue to mount, a pattern of accusations has begun to emerge that tells of grandiose ambition, easy-money schemes, and widespread instances of abused trust.

For years Salander, 58, enjoyed a sterling reputation in the art world, first as a purveyor of 19th-century European and 20th-century American works and later as a dealer with rare access to Old Masters and Renaissance pieces. Since founding the gallery with former partner William O'Reilly in 1976, Salander had cultivated close relationships with collectors as well as artists and their families. Tennis star John McEnroe, who once apprenticed at the gallery, is the godfather of one of Salander's seven children. Earl Davis, the son of American painter Stuart Davis, entrusted the dealer with hundreds of his father's works over the course of a long friendship. Both men are now suing the gallery.

The chronology that follows traces the gradual implosion of Salander-O'Reilly over the past three years, with facts and allegations taken from legal complaints and other court documents as well as numerous news reports from the Maine Antique Digest, Bloomberg, and other publications. (A full list of sources can be found at the bottom, with a key for attributions; all other items come from court documents.) Some of the claimants, including hedge-fund executive Roy Lennox, collector Monty Diamond, and McEnroe, accuse Salander of talking them into too-good-to-be-true investments and then making their money disappear. Others, such as Earl Davis and Florida collector Carol F. Cohen, say Salander sold artworks they had given him for safekeeping—often far below their value—and funneled the proceeds toward paying his own debts. Still other claimants include contractors, banks, and Salander-O'Reilly's former landlord. RFR Realty, the company that owns the gallery's current building, is also suing to have Salander-O'Reilly evicted and to reclaim $1.7 million in missed rent. Many longtime employees have left.

This timeline is not a step-by-step account so much as a list of the key moments as we understand them today—most often from the point of view of the claimants—in the still unfolding story of Salander’s fall. For analysis and further reporting on the Salander cases, please see “Lock, Stock, and Caravaggio” by Judd Tully in the December 2007 issue of Art & Auction magazine.

1976 – Salander-O’Reilly opens at 20 East 79th Street, a building owned by gallery company Paul Rosenberg & Co.

1984 – Manhattan art dealer Dennis R. Anderson pleads guilty to grand larceny after being indicted for swindling Salander-O’Reilly and other prominent galleries out of millions of dollars in art and cash by selling paintings he didn’t own. Sidney L. Bergen, then president of the Upper East Side's ACA Galleries, says afterwards: “This is a business based on trust. It’s a business where someone with a good reputation can come into my gallery and take a work from me by just signing a receipt for it.” (3)

Feb. 28, 1995 – Curtis Squire, Inc., a Minnesota-based venture capital firm controlled by collector Myron Kunin, takes a 50 percent interest in Salander-O’Reilly as a passive investor. The agreement, which entitles Curtis Squire to half of the gallery’s profits, names Lawrence Salander the sole manager of the partnership and gives him a yearly compensation of $500,000. (1)

1997 – William O’Reilly, the gallery’s cofounder, retires. This same year Salander-O’Reilly is subpoenaed along with numerous other prominent New York galleries as part of a U.S. Justice Department investigation of price-fixing between dealers and auction houses. (3)