Another worry among dealers in the wake of the Salander contretemps is that collectors might start choosing auction houses over galleries when consigning works. “That’s a concern we have all the time,” says Paul Gray, of the Richard Gray Gallery in Chicago and New York. “Credibility is a huge part of any business’s assets, and it’s something that can evaporate rather quickly when you don’t take care of it. It certainly doesn’t help when one of our colleagues, especially one who is well-known and generally respected, is accused of wrongdoing.”

In trying to untangle the puzzling accumulation of problems facing the once incredibly successful gallery, an established New York art dealer familiar with Salander’s long history says, “It seems as if he went from being a real connoisseur of American modern pictures and knowing the field cold to believing in his own eye in the Old Masters field, one that he had very little experience in.” A noted museum curator concurs: “You can’t just wander into a new field and make your own attributions of everything and expect to be successful.”

As for Salander, he seemed in October to be in shock over his avalanche of legal problems. “In all of my 58 years, I’ve never been sued [before January of this year]. I never even set foot in a courtroom.” Pausing for a moment, he added, “I’m getting the shit kicked out of me, and it’s not fun.”

"The Reporter: Lock, Stock and Caravaggio" comes to ARTINFO from the December 2007 issue of Art & Auction magazine.