William J. Tomlinson, an art dealer and appraiser who founded the Tomlinson Collection art gallery and store at Baltimore's Rotunda shopping mall, died of a heart attack Dec. 24 at Monongalia General Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va. He was 73.

A former Riderwood resident, Mr. Tomlinson had lived for the past 25 years in Morgantown and was co-owner there of an art gallery, Garo-The Tomlinson Collection. He had owned the business bearing his name at the Rotunda on 40th Street.

Born in Bay City, Mich., Mr. Tomlinson earned a degree in theater and stage design at Michigan State University in Lansing. He moved to Baltimore in the 1950s and was a vice president for the old downtown Ferdinand Roten Gallery on West Mulberry Street. He had a shop in Pikesville before opening in the Rotunda about 1971.

"In the print world, as an appraiser, he was a national figure," said George Theofiles, a graphics dealer from New Freedom, Pa.

In the early 1990s, Mr. Tomlinson appraised the 15,000-piece George Lucas collection of 19th-century prints owned by the Maryland Institute College of Art .

A memorial service is being planned.

He is survived by his wife of 25 years, the former Ami Hirata; two sons, William Craig Tomlinson of New York City and Andrew James Tomlinson of Baltimore; two stepsons, Ren Petersen of Morgantown and Sei Petersen of Baltimore; and two grandsons. His previous marriage to the former Virginia Ullrich ended in divorce.