Philip Boroff is Bloomberg‘s Salander specialist and he covers the sale of the disgraced art dealer’s stock that fell short of estimates.
The total yesterday fell short of the $2.3 million presale low estimate. More than a third of the art didn’t sell, which dealers and art consultants attributed as much to Salander’s habit of buying in bulk — indiscriminately, some say — as to European economic turbulence.
Salander, 61, who pleaded guilty in March to a $120 million art fraud, is free on $1 million bail. He could be sentenced to as much as 18 years in prison, Justice Michael Obus said then. He’s due to appear in court next on June 23. He didn’t attend the auction.
He had paid $262,400 for the studio of El Greco artwork, “The Agony in the Garden,” in 2005 at a Christie’s New York sale. It sold yesterday to a middle-aged man in a cerulean blue jacket.
“I don’t like to appear in the news,” the unidentified man said in accented English as he left the saleroom.
Salander Auction Raises $2.1 Million, Third of Lots Goes Unsold (Bloomberg)
