Jan. 2003 – Around this time Lawrence Salander approaches hedge-fund company executive Roy Lennox, a friend and neighbor of his in Millbrook, N.Y., with a proposition to jointly purchase an $800,000 Corot painting. Salander says he has found a buyer who will pay $1.25 million for the artwork, and that if Lennox invests $400,000 in the painting he will earn the money back plus $225,000. After this first deal goes as planned, Salander entices Lennox and his wife to put $3,135,000 into other art investments over the next three years, most with similar easy-money returns promised. Lennox also buys a Donatello sculpture from the gallery for $812,812.50. Salander repays only a fraction of the investments; the Donatello, according to Lennox, turns out to be a copy. [For a more detailed timeline of this case, click here.]

2005 – Noticing that the gallery is suffering from what appears to be bookkeeping errors, Earl Davis, son of the late painter Stuart Davis, asks Lawrence Salander for a full accounting of the hundreds of his father's works that he had consigned to the gallery over the course of a two-decade relationship. In December, after finding out that Salander had sold four important paintings without his permission, Davis tells the dealer to stop selling the works and return his art. [For a more detailed timeline of this case, click here.]

April 1, 2005 – Massachusetts-based collector Saundra B. Lane sells New Haven, a Charles Sheeler painting, to Lawrence Salander for $9,173,261. The bill of sale calls for 11 payments ending January 2007, with interest bringing the total due to $9.8 million: In the event Salander defaults on the payments, Lane is entitled to reclaim the Sheeler plus six other works put up as collateral, including two paintings said to be by Albert Pinkham Ryder, Windmill and Witch’s Mountain. (1)

May 25, 2005 – Paul Rosenberg & Co., Salander-O’Reilly’s landlord, and Elaine Rosenberg, the widow of Paul Rosenberg’s son, agree to give Lawrence Salander $200,000 toward a joint purchase of Stuart Davis’s Brown Table Still Life for $400,000. Salander tells them a buyer is lined up to pay $800,000 for the work, and that they will receive double their investment by December 15, 2005.

Fall 2005 – The gallery moves to a five-story mansion on East 71st Street that is steps away from the Frick Collection. The rent, variously reported as $183,000 (5) and $154,000 (3) per month, is a steep increase over the $58,333 (3) paid for the 79th Street space. During a transition period, the gallery occupies both locations.

Sept. 28, 2005 – William O’Reilly files a motion for a summary judgment ordering Lawrence Salander to repay him $147,969 (plus interest) owed from a $225,369 loan made to the gallery in 1990. A settlement is reached instituting a new payment schedule, on which Salander ultimately defaults. O'Reilly is currently considering another lawsuit.

Oct. 7, 2005 – The Gil Studio, Inc., a Brooklyn-based company specializing in leaded and stained glass, takes out a $43,594 lien against the Salanders’ 82nd Street home after not being paid that amount for work on a window. The debt is satisfied seven months later when Lawrence Salander refinances his mortgage.

Feb. 28, 2006 – Renaud-Giquello & Associés, a Paris auction house, sues Salander-O’Reilly for $172,810 (plus interest and bank fees) that it owes from the March 2005 purchase of a Manet painting.

March 2006 – Monty Diamond, a New York-based art collector who knows Lawrence Salander socially and whose friends and family have successfully conducted business with the gallery, entrusts Salander with 16 artworks to sell at a 10 percent commission. As part of the arrangement Salander is supposed to let Diamond pre-approve any sale prices. Six months later, however, Salander tells Diamond that he sold 10 works for $477,500 without his permission, offers to waive his dealer’s fee as a result, and says to expect payments beginning January 2007.

April 14, 2006 – Renaissance Art Investors, a company run by Triumph Apparel Corp. chairman Donald Schupak, purchases approximately 300 Renaissance works for a total of $42,197,660. Lawrence Salander says that the deal will give the company “ownership of one of the largest private collections of Renaissance art in the United States.” In turn, Salander becomes the “exclusive consignee” for the artworks.