Art Dealer Nabbed in $88 Million Swindle

It appears to be game over for Manhattan art dealer and gallery owner Lawrence Salander, who was arrested Thursday morning and accused of stealing $88 million from various art world players, institutions and investors, including tennis champ John McEnroe.

AP via Google News:

Lawrence B. Salander used the money to try to corner the Renaissance art market and to support an extravagant lifestyle that included private jet travel, a lavish party for his wife at New York’s Frick Collection museum, and the purchase and maintenance of his Manhattan town house and a 66-acre estate, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said.

Morgenthau said Salander defrauded a total of 26 victims in two primary ways:

In one, he sold artwork not owned by him and kept the money. The district attorney said Salander sometimes sold a piece of art owned by someone else several times.

“Why sell it just once when you can sell it three times?” Morgenthau said.

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AP photo / Michel Spingler

Robert De Niro poses in 2005 next to an image of his father, artist Robert De Niro Sr., on a poster at La Piscine Museum in Roubaix, France. The actor is accusing art dealer Lawrence Salander, who was arrested Thursday, of stealing a dozen of his late father’s paintings in 2007.