By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — Movie legend Robert De Niro took on the role of star witness Friday before a packed courtroom in the trial of an art dealer charged with stealing paintings.
De Niro said he trusted the Upper East Side's Salander-O'Reilly Galleries with the collection of paintings done by the actor's late father, and inherited by De Niro.
The gallery's owner, Lawrence Salander, has already pleaded guilty to selling his clients' valuable paintings without their knowledge and pocketing the profits in a $120 million scam. Gallery manager Leigh Morse is now on trial.
"I realized (Salander) was in heavy denial or just wasn't giving me the truth," De Niro said, remembering a time when he asked about one of his dad's paintings that was mysteriously sold to a gallery in Rome without his knowledge.
"He was either delusional or deluding himself or just not being honest," De Niro said on Friday while testifying at the trial of Morse, 55, who is charged with swindling the De Niro estate out of $77,000, money that was allegedly transferred directly from a San Diego gallery to her personal account.
Her lawyer has argued it was Salander making the illicit sales of his consignors' artwork and that the De Niro transfer Morse got was sales commission duly owed.
In court on Friday, De Niro, dressed in a forest green corduroy blazer, told jurors he did not have many personal dealings with Morse but dealt mostly with Salander, who he said became a trusted friend over the years.
But he said he knew something was up with Salander when an artist friend who also dealt artwork through the gallery called him with a warning.
"He said, you know, 'Watch out — he allowed my paintings to be sold to another gallery,' " De Niro recalled of the conversation. "I forget the details but my friends got screwed by Larry Salander."
"I thought — there it is," De Niro continued. "I felt something was going to happen down the line."
The actor, famous for his attitude and gritty charm in iconic New York films like "Goodfellas" and "Taxi Driver," told Assistant District Attorney Micki Shulman-Hendricks that he would not have questioned the transfer of thousands to Morse if it was indeed a "kosher" commission earning on the sale of a Robert De Niro Sr. piece.
But, he said, he was not aware of any sale made by Morse during the time frame in question.
De Niro drew laughs from the packed gallery when he dodged a thorough answer to a cross-examination question from defense attorney Andrew Lankler about whether he would accept payments from the Salander gallery.
"You want to get paid what you're owed," Lankler said. "You don't care where the money comes from?"
"That's about it," De Niro said, smirking slightly.
Jurors in the trial had been told "Robert De Niro himself" would be testifying, so it was not a surprise when dozens of reporters, employees and other interested parties filed into the 13th-floor courtroom for the Oscar-winning star's testimony.
He was escorted by court officers out of the building to a black Cadillac Escalade idling on Centre Street and did not speak to reporters, but muttered a greeting when a photographer shouted his name.
Salander, 60, has already been sentenced to up to six years in prison after he admitted to scamming De Niro, John McEnroe and others.
