Collectors Lay Claim to Salander Estate
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
In early April, lawyers representing Salander-O’Reilly Galleries LLC sent notices to Henry Kravis, Yo-Yo Ma, Ivan Lendl, and 18,000 others around the world explaining how to retrieve artworks held by the bankrupt New York dealer. Sunday is the deadline to submit a claim.
The process, open to anyone, involves perusing a Web site listing 4,000 artworks that were found at the gallery and its warehouses. They include drawings and paintings by Elaine de Kooning, Hans Richter, John Constable, and lesser-known artists, such as proprietor Lawrence Salander himself.
Since the gallery filed for bankruptcy in November, “it is not readily apparent which artworks are property of the debtor’s estate,” unsecured creditors said in a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.
In other words, no one knows who owns what. So far, about 100 people and businesses have made claims, Marc Ross, a principal with Triax Capital Advisors, a New York firm that’s selling Salander-O’Reilly’s assets, said.
The claims process may provide a window into Lawrence Salander’s business affairs. Before he and the gallery filed for bankruptcy, lawsuits accused him of fraud and selling paintings he didn’t own without submitting proceeds to the owners. He has denied wrongdoing.
