e is a 30 year veteran of the art gallery establishment in New York and was director of the gallery. She is charged with stealing and defrauding clients by selling paintings of the Robert DiNiro, Sr. estate, not paying the estate and having purchase proceeds deposited directly into her account. She has plead not guilty and is free on bail.The Bloomberg article states Morse was a dealer long before she joined Salander, now 60. She worked for other American painting galleries, including Coe- Kerr in the 1980s, according to a dealer who worked with her. After Coe-Kerr closed in the early 1990s, she joined Babcock Galleries.
“I thought she was a stellar person,” said John Driscoll, owner of Babcock. “When she worked here, she was bright and on the ball and gracious and totally professional.”
At Salander-O’Reilly, where she worked from 1995 until it closed in October 2007, Morse sold artworks from the estate of Abstract Expressionist painter Robert De Niro Sr., father of actor Robert De Niro, and didn’t inform the estate of sales or remit proceeds, Morgenthau said in a press conference yesterday.
In May 2007, Morse sold two De Niro paintings and arranged for the $77,000 purchase price to be wired to her personal bank account, Morgenthau said.
‘Earned Trust’
As gallery director, “she earned the trust of the estates that turned over possession of their inherited art for the Gallery to exhibit and sell,” according to the District Attorney’s office. “Rather than communicate the truthful information to the respective estates, Morse intentionally misled them or failed to disclose the true status of their works,” the office said in a release.
Salander owes Morse money in back commissions, said Micki Shulman, deputy bureau chief of Morgenthau’s frauds bureau.
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