Dealer Salander-O'Reilly Plans Sale of 35,000 Art, Music Books , Yazzy's at www.williamverdult.com

A book titled 'European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18thth Centuries' sits amongst a portion of an estimated 35,000 volume book collection sit on shelves in the Salander-O'Reilly Gallery in New York Jan. 18, 2008. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg News

According to Bloomberg News Salander-O'Reilly Galleries LLC, the New York art dealer that filed for bankruptcy protection in November, plans to sell its collection of 35,000 art books and catalogs.

Joseph Sarachek, the gallery's court-approved chief restructuring officer, said proprietor Lawrence Salander spent more than $4 million amassing the collection.

Sarachek, 46, briefly opened the gallery's doors to a reporter and photographer last week. Its mansion off Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side has been closed to the public since October after Salander and his gallery became engulfed by debt.

``It's unbelievable, right?'' Sarachek said on the gallery's fourth floor, surrounded by books upon books on custom-built shelves and in cardboard boxes. Books are also on two other floors.

The collection includes volumes about individual artists, art history surveys and catalogs from past shows held at Salander-O'Reilly and at auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's International.

Books include ``Italian Paintings of the 15th Century,'' published by the National Gallery of Art (which is available for $86.03 from Amazon.com); ``Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings and Drawings,'' by Frank Zollner ($269 from Amazon); and the six-volume ``Drawings of Rembrandt,'' edited by Otto Benesch ($937 from Amazon).

Wide Scope

There are also collections of periodicals, such as ``The Musical Quarterly,'' ``Journal of the American Musicology Society'' and the ``Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association.''

Peter Kraus, whose Ursus Books and Prints sold Salander- O'Reilly part of the collection and later sued the gallery to recover $315,000, said its emphasis is Renaissance and baroque art, from the 16th to 18th centuries.

Bil Thibodeau, a Salander-O'Reilly employee since 1999, said the library's scope is wide and includes 19th- and 20th- century art, architecture, furniture, tapestry, mosaics and jewelry. A sale must be approved by Cecelia Morris, the Poughkeepsie, New York, judge overseeing the bankruptcy.