The case involving a congregation of Catholic nuns headquartered near here, which sued a Santa Fe, N.M., art dealer and a local appraiser for fraud in the sale of a painting by Nineteenth Century genre artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau, has ended, with the sisters unsuccessful in their attempt to be made whole on the painting's true value.
The case went to jury trial in December. Before Justice Michael C. Lynch of the Albany County Supreme Court on January 6, closing arguments were presented to the jury after a brief hiatus during the New Year's holiday. The case went to the jury on Monday, January 9, and by Monday afternoon the verdict came back — the two men on trial for "scamming" the sisters, Mark Zaplin and Mark LaSalle, were found not guilty.

"I'm shaking! It's been a three-year nightmare," said a relieved Zaplin when contacted after word of the jury's decision came down. "There was no fraud here and the jury found 100 percent in our favor."

In August 2008, the Daughters of Mary Mother of Our Savior and St Joseph's Chapel, based in Round Top, N.Y., claimed that the dealer, Zaplin, and Mark LaSalle, a New York State art appraiser, colluded to defraud them of the $1.7 million they believe they could have gotten for selling "Notre Dame des Anges," an 1889 work by Bouguereau that depicts Mary standing in the clouds with the Christ Child surrounded by angels. (See Antiques and The Arts Weekly, March 30, 2009.)