Salander director Leigh Morse gets weekends in jail

20 July 2011

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Art dealer Leigh Morse was ordered to pay $1 million to the family of American modernist Stuart Davis (1892-1964) as part of her sentencing.

(Image via Courthouse News Service)

Leigh Morse, the former gallery director who worked for disgraced art dealer Lawrence Salander, will owe defrauded clients $1.65 million in restitution.

Manhattan criminal court also sentenced Morse, 55, to weekend confinement in prison for four months and a five-year probation.

She escaped a sentence of 1 to 3 years in prison and $9.1 million in restitution as sought by the district attorney.

In April, Morse was found guilty of selling more than 80 works of art from four estates for approximately $5 million without informing the owners.

She was cleared of larceny stemming from allegations she sold several paintings by Robert DeNiro's father, the late Robert DeNiro Sr., without paying the actor.

Her former boss, Lawrence Salander, is serving a 6 to 18 year prison term for an art scam that netted more than $100 million from DeNiro, tennis legend John McEnroe, Bank of America Corp, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the estate of Stuart Davis, and many others. He was ordered to pay $120 million in restitution.

Morse maintains that she was unaware of Salander's scheme and that telling consignors about sales was not part of her job. She did not expect the Salander-O'Reilly Gallery to file for bankruptcy in 2007, she said.

Read more at Reuters

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