Salander Gallery Still Claiming Victims

Bloomberg is running an interesting post on the fate of a Botticelli painting (see image) which was consigned to the Salander gallery for sale.  Its current value is close to $9.5 million.  The owner of the painting has been trying to get the piece out of the bankruptcy proceedings.  The court ruled the consignors still own the Botticelli, but that the bankruptcy proceedings still may have a claim.  The article notes after all of this time none of the creditors have received any compensation for their losses, while those involved in the administration of the bankruptcy such as attorney's etc have.

Years ago when DC area auction house Sloan's declared bankruptcy my family had a claim, and also received payment for sales items just before the bankruptcy.  My father had to reimburse the bankruptcy court for the payment, even though he still owed tens of thousands of dollars for unpaid sold consignments.  The laws for auction houses and consignments dont favor the clients.

Bloomberg reports 

The Botticelli may offer millions for creditors, after U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel ruled this week against the owner’s effort to wrest it from bankruptcy-court control. A similar work sold in 2006 for $7.5 million at Christie’s in London.

Some creditors, such as De Niro, were able to retrieve art through a claims process in bankruptcy court. (De Niro’s late father, the artist Robert De Niro Sr., was represented by the gallery.) The only people who’ve received money from the gallery since the bankruptcy filing are lawyers, auctioneers and others involved with its unwinding.

Kraken Investments, based in the Channel Islands, consigned “Madonna and Child” to the gallery with an asking price of $9.5 million, according to a letter of agreement filed in federal court. The 14-by-10-inch work was to be displayed in an exhibition titled “Masterpieces of Art: Five Centuries of Painting and Sculpture,” which Salander billed ahead of its October 2007 opening as his grandest show to date.

Gallery Closed

But as lawsuits piled up from aggrieved customers and partners, a state judge ordered the gallery closed, and a London dealer collaborating on the show pulled his art.

The Botticelli, which the catalog said was once owned by Imelda Marcos, became entangled in the bankruptcy that began days later.

The bankruptcy “has been nothing less than a nightmare,” said Tel Aviv-based dealer Ronald Fuhrer in a telephone interview. He described himself in a 2008 claims form as an agent for Kraken.

Source: Bloomberg