Update: Salander Sentenced for Art Scam

Larry Salander and his daughter Ivana, pictured in First Republic Bank's 2005 annual report.

Image: File

Lawrence Salander, the Manhattan art dealer who once considered people like Robert De Niro and John McEnroe as both friends and clients, was sentenced Tuesday to six to 18 years in prison. The crime—selling art that belonged to his clients and then keeping the money in a fraud scheme authorities pegged at $120 million.

“First I want to apologize to the victims of my crimes,” Salander said in court, talking not just to the judge, but to at least 10 victims who were there to testify in support of a tough sentence. “I know that I have wronged you, and I am truly ashamed of my behavior. You trusted me and I betrayed you, and I am deeply sorry for the pain and loss my actions have caused you.”

“I have lost my life, my business, and my reputation. I am utterly and completely disgraced,” he said.

The Salander story was profiled in the pages of Condé Nast Portfolio magazine, the forerunner of this website. The 2008 piece, by Suzanna Andrews, dug deep not only into what was motivating Salander, but also into the market forces that fueled rocketing art prices.

Larry Salander was one of New York’s most respected and powerful art dealers. During his 35 years in the business, he had developed a sterling reputation, not only for his integrity, his eye for quality, and his brilliant shows, but also for his business acumen….

What Salander had set out to do, people say, was to create, in effect, an entirely new market for old masters. And he was utterly convinced that he would be able to make it happen. But his motive, some say, was not just his passion for art. He’d seen the effect that the cascade of new money was having on the market, how the power was shifting to contemporary dealers like Larry Gagosian, who worked the moneymen so well. And Salander was tempted, some say. It wasn’t the money but his ambition that drove him, friends say. There was no question that art was his great love, but his other passion, and perhaps the stronger of the two, was his desire “to be the greatest, the most important, dealer in the world,” says one prominent artist. “Larry talked about it openly, and you could also feel that was his idea. It just radiated off him.”

To read more from Andrews' profile, click here. And go here to see a slideshow of photos of key people in the Salander saga.