A lot of confusion ensued from this artnet post today, in which Brian Boucher reported:
Artnews S.A., the Polish company that briefly published the New York-based ARTnews magazine and, even briefer still, Art in America, has filed for bankruptcy and liquidation of its assets, according to the Polish website Investments.
Did this mean that ARTnews was going to fold? Not so, according to the official statement, just issued by Rubenstein Associates, the media relations firm, on behalf of collector/publisher Peter Brant‘s BMP Media Holdings.
Photo by Lee Rosenbaum
The statement should alleviate concerns about the continued life of the in-flux ARTnews (at least for now):
Last month, BMP Media Holdings took control of Art in America, MODERN, The Magazine ANTIQUES, and ARTnews from their former parent company, Artnews S.A., which is based in Poland. [Links are mine, not theirs.] This week, BMP announced that those titles will be held under the name Art Media Holdings LLC, a privately held company located in New York.
Artnews S.A., which owns Art & Business magazine and Skate’s Art Market Research, has no affiliation with the U.S.–based ARTnews magazine and ARTnews.com, despite their similar names. Art Media Holdings, the newly formed company, which is wholly owned by Peter Brant, is located in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood. All of its magazines, websites, and related publications will continue as usual [emphasis added].
And in other ARTnews news, its former editor and publisher, Milton Esterow (under whom I published many articles, both on staff and freelance) recently received a Cross of Honor for Science and Art, conferred on him and the magazine’s former contributing editor, Andrew Decker, by Austrian Federal President Heinz Fischer:
Congrats to Mr Esterow, our 2014 Cultural Leadership Award recipient for his Cross of Honor! https://t.co/VSzAbQoBAz pic.twitter.com/Y4MWzElVht
— Amer Federation Arts (@AmFedArts) June 7, 2016