Bankrupt Salander Sale Totals $1.6 Million for Furniture

Phone Decorations An auction of European and American furnitureand garden decorations from bankrupt Salander-O'Reilly GalleriesLLC brought in $1.6 million, as collectors, dealers and interiordesigners scooped up items for a fraction of what Lawrence Salander paid for them in 2004. The sale on Saturday at Stair Galleries in Hudson, New York, about 115 miles north of Manhattan, exceededthe auction house's conservative high presale estimate of $1million. Colin Stair, who runs the gallery, had arranged for 10 people toaccept bids via telephone. Makeshift phone agents included a localpilates instructor and Stair's 19-year-old daughter, Holly, astudent at Parsons The New School for Design. Among the 150 bargain hunters were a well-behaved chihuahua and agolden retriever; New York City Opera Chairwoman Susan L. Baker; and Christopher Burge, the honorary chairman of Christie's Americas in New York. Burge, the auctioneer who presided over Christie's sale last monthof a Lucian Freud painting for $33.6 million and a Mark Rothko for $50.4 million, bought an Italian rococo mirror for $736. "It's the meat and potatoes of our business," he said of theauction. "The big evening sales are freak shows by comparison." The top lot at the five-hour sale was an art deco wrought- irongate that sold for $73,600. The buyer was a woman with short brownhair and a red blouse who declined to talk to a reporter. Deemed a Success In November, Salander-O'Reilly declared bankruptcy and Salander andhis wife, Julie, filed for personal bankruptcy. Proceeds of theHudson sale, minus about $320,000 in commissions for Stair, will gothe Salander-O'Reilly estate. Lawrence Salander acquired about half of the 314 items at aChristie's auction in southeast England in 2004. The Stair cataloglisted what he paid, and most went for less. Dean Gipson, who ownsantique shops in London and Stamford, Connecticut, nonethelessdeemed the sale a success. "It could've done a lot worse, the way the climate is," he said."Big prices were paid in 2004. The market was more buoyant then." A stone urn sold for $10,350, half of what Salander paid. Asandstone fountain fetched $5,750, less than one-third ofSalander's purchase price. A marble "well head" which is placedabove a well made $29,900, also a third of Salander's price. "Obviously, they overpaid," New York lawyer David Rozenholc saidabout Salander-O'Reilly. Rozenholc with his wife, Dena, bought a stately oak GeorgeIII-style chimney piece for $5,200, among other pieces, for theirSouthampton house. Salander's zeal for collecting rivaled that of his best customers.He acquired some 300 antique carpets for the gallery, which weresold last month at another U.S. Bankruptcy Court- approved sale,for about $250,000. Earlier, Salander-O'Reilly's 20,000 rare artand music books fetched $350,000 in a private sale to Ursus Books,a New York dealer. All prices at Stair include a 15 percent commission -- or 17percent for credit card purchases.