Would you buy a used painting from this man?
Disgraced Manhattan art mogul Lawrence Salander, 59, was dragged by cops — unshaven — out of his Dutchess County estate this morning to face charges he stole an astounding $88 million, much of it from a list of wealthy investors that includes tennis great John McEnroe, who’s still out $2 million.
Manhattan fraud prosecutors are hinting more art bigs may yet wind up in handcuffs. Salander and his bankrupt Upper East Side gallery, Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, remain under investigation by a grand jury, said DA Robert Morgenthau.
Salander rooked some of the East Coast art world’s biggest investors and owners via numerous complex schemes, investigators said. But his most lucrative alleged scheme boils down, simply, to selling the same painting more than once.
In McEnroe’s case, that meant investing in two of Salander’s paintings “Pirate I” and “Pirate II” by Arshile Gorky — only to learn that he, Salander, and a third investor all owned the same 50 percent share.
To make matters still more complicated, Salander then went on to use the paintings as collateral for a $2 million loan from Bank of America, claiming to the bank he owned them outright.
The DA’s investigations chief, Patrick Dugan, likened it to something fictional con artist Max Bialistock asked in “The Producers.”
“How many halves make up a whole? Why sell it just once when you can sell it three times?” joked Morgenthau.
Actor Robert De Niro’s father, Robert Sr., is among the artists featured in Salander’s defunct gallery — but prosecutors declined to say if those works are involved in any alleged scams. But the actor has accused Salander and the gallery of outright theft of several paintings, which were loaned to the gallery on consignment.
Among the artworks that were involved are paintings on consignment from the estates of such prominent 20th-century American artists as Stuart Davis, Ralston Crawford, Elie Nadelman, Louis Kahn, Giorgio Cavallon, George McNeil, Suzy Frelinghuysen and George Morris.
Salander is due to be arraigned this afternoon on charges of grand larceny, forgery and securities fraud that could put him in prison for as long as 25 years. Deputy frauds bureau chief Micki Shulman said she’ll be asking for “substantial bail.”
If Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus complies, that could me a long stretch behind bars for the high-living art mogul, whose extravagances include a $35,000 baseball diamond on his lavish Millbrook, NY estate.