Update: Salander

Sorry for the quick and short posts, my primary computer needed to be replaced (decided to do so before I had a catastrophic crash), and I have spent the better part of two days moving programs and hardware drivers to the new machine.  So far, not to bad of a task, except it is time consuming.

Philip Boroff writing for Bloomberg reports that furniture and other decorative arts owned by Lawrence Salander will be auctioned off.  Salander recently plead guilty to defrauding patrons of his gallery to the sum of $120 million.  The furniture and other decorative arts are expected to generate between $100,000 and $200,000 and will be auctioned by Stair Galleries.  There are about 175 lots. It seems Salander was particularly fond of rugs, in 2008 Tepper Galleries sold almost 300 antique carpets from the gallery raising $250,000. There are numerous rugs in the upcoming sale as well.

Boroff reports

Top lots include a Gothic Revival mahogany bookcase (presale estimate of $5,000 to $10,000), Chinese carved-wood figures of a deity ($5,000 to $10,000) and an Austrian Renaissance-style walnut extension dining table ($2,000 to $4,000).

“He had nice taste in nice things,” Stair said.

Stair declined to say whether he set minimum prices for the items. He handled a 2008 sale of European and American furniture from Salander-O’Reilly that totaled $1.6 million, $600,000 above the presale estimate.

The former Salander home, a 9,000-square-foot, six-story townhouse on East 82nd Street, is being offered for $14.25 million. His lawyers sought $25 million when they put it on the market two years ago. The 1898 building, between Madison and Park Avenues, was once home to playwright Lillian Hellman.

Stair said that in July he expects to sell the contents of Salander’s Millbrook, New York, home, which sits on 66 bucolic acres. European sculpture and paintings recovered from Salander’s gallery may be auctioned later this year.

To read the full article, click HERE.