Court Win for McEnroe on Gorky Pirate Painting

(CN) - Tennis legend John McEnroe is a rightful co-owner of a disputed Arshile Gorky painting, a New York appeals court ruled.

The tangled case stems from the fraudulent dealings of convicted New York art dealer Lawrence Salander, sentenced in 2010 to a six-to-eight-year prison term.

Back in 2004, Salander made a deal with McEnroe to buy a half-interest in Gorky's Pirate I and II.

Little did McEnroe know, however, that Salander made the same deal with Washington, D.C., developer Morton Bender.

McEnroe and Bender settled their claims against each other to bring a 2009 complaint against the art dealer who had taken possession of Pirate II.

They said Salander transferred the painting's alleged ownership to an affiliated entity, The Seven Salander Children Group, which then transferred Pirate II to dealer Joseph Carroll in exchange for his artwork.

After a bench trial, a Manhattan Supreme Court judge sided with McEnroe and Bender in 2013.

The Appellate Division's First Department affirmed on March 24, rejecting Carroll's claims that the deal to sell him the painting bound McEnroe and Bender.

"Without any evidence that SOG conveyed title to The Group, Carroll could not have received good title from The Group, which, defendants concede, was a nonexistent entity," the unsigned decision states.

The five-justice panel added that Carroll bought Pirate II, 1943, in a "grossly undervalued transaction" in which he made "insufficient inquiry" into Salander's authority to sell the painting.

Salander's behavior during the sale of the artwork to Carroll "marked a departure from their normal course of dealings, and that, by going forward with the transaction despite these red flags, Carroll did not observe the reasonable commercial standards of the art trade," the ruling states.

McEnroe won 77 tennis tournaments in his career, including three Wimbledon singles titles and four U.S. Open singles titles.

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