Robert De Niro (WireImage)
DEADBEAT: Leigh Morse, once accused of ripping off Robert De Niro, was ordered to repay gallery scam victims. (
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She cried for her victims’ “pain and suffering” as she got a wrist-slap sentence last year.
But art fraudster Leigh Morse is now refusing to pay back a penny of the $1.2 million she helped loot from artists’ estates with her notorious boss, Lawrence Salander, prosecutors complained in court.
And that’s despite her owning homes in Pennsylvania and on the Upper West Side and running her own Upper East Side gallery.
With Salander penniless and in prison until at least 2016, Morse — ordered to make restitution — is the only hope for Salander-O’Reilly Galleries victims like Earl Davis, son of the late artist Stuart Davis.
“She is almost four months behind,” prosecutor Kenn Kern told the judge on Friday. “These victims are entitled to the money.”
Salander stole more than 90 Stuart Davis paintings. Morse was ordered to repay $1 million to Earl Davis, the artist’s sole heir.
“Earl Davis is extremely frustrated and upset that, to date, Leigh Morse has not complied with the terms of the restitution order,” said his lawyer, Michael Hertzberg.
Morse also owes six-figure sums to the Lachaise Foundation and the estates of artists Suzy Frelinghuysen and George Morris.
“I’m very sorry for causing people pain and suffering,” Morse told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus in July 2011 at her sentencing on scheme-to-defraud charges.
A jury convicted Morse of selling more than 80 works from four estates without notifying them over her 12 years as director at the Salander-O’Reilly Galleries.
She was also charged with pocketing $77,000 from the sale of two works by painter Robert De Niro Sr., owned by his son, actor Robert De Niro. Jurors acquitted her on that charge.
Salander, who scammed a total of $120 million, got a six to 18 years in prison.
Morse had faced four years, but got four months of weekends in jail and had to repay $1.65 million in five installments, with the first $340,000 due last July.
Morse has been back in court twice since missing that payment, with prosecutors have demanding she be made to sell her $600,000 apartment on Riverside Drive or her getaway in Mount Bethel, Pa., valued at around $300,000.
Her lawyer, Andrew Lankler, said Morse is appealing and wants to wait until the state Appellate Division decides before paying up.
Morse declined to comment as she left court with her husband, Sigmund Batruk. The judge, who is threatening to reconsider Morse’s original sentence, has set Nov. 9 as her next court date.