The Salander bankruptcy has been tough going for the gallery’s consignors. Robert de Niro got his father’s art back but otherwise the consignors have seen no money. Now it seems that one consignor is going to lose out as a way to fund the others. Philip Boroff reports on Bloomberg that the owner of a Boticelli work on offer for nearly $10m just lost his appeal to keep title of the work:
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. […]
“The court well understands why Kraken is perturbed, even outraged, by the idea that Salander-O’Reilly creditors may enjoy the proceeds from the sale of a valuable painting concededly owned by Kraken,” she wrote. She said New York state law allows for that because the owner failed to make a filing required by New York’s Uniform Commercial Code. […]
The only people who’ve received money from the gallery since the bankruptcy filing are lawyers, auctioneers and others involved with its unwinding.
