Imposters are posing as Art News editors to scam artists

Impostors are posing as Art News editors in an apparent attempt to solicit money from artists, the publication warned Thursday, as artists said the tactic has become increasingly common.

“Art News has been alerted to a scam involving individuals impersonating our editors and sending fraudulent, solicitous emails,” the publication wrote in a post to Instagram.

“These messages are coming from email addresses that closely resemble ours but are not legitimate and have no affiliation with Art News.”

The company, which is owned by Penske Media Corporation along with Art in America, said the two publications do not accept payment in exchange for coverage, or solicit artists for payment in exchange for coverage.

“We are sharing this notice to alert our community and help prevent further fraudulent activity,” the publication said.

It was not immediately clear if any artists had fallen victim to the scam, or what other publications have been impersonated in similar schemes.

Cristina Clarimón, the artist behind MadCollage, suggested in a comment to Art News’ post that such schemes thrive “due to the many art magazines that actually demand money to feature artists.”

“It’s been normalized that a publication collects fees just to consider an artist. It should stop,” she said.

Haro Istamboulian, a Los Angeles-based artist, said that he reached out to a real editor at Art News after receiving the scam emails, who replied to him.

“I got a ton of these and one of your editors, the real one I reached out to, was nice enough to reply to me,” he said. “I used logic to understand that Art News wouldn’t write the way the spoof did. Ridiculous.”

And a social media art critic named Nick, behind the accounts Nick vs. Art World, said he has seen “lots of fake accounts impersonating art publications,” especially on TikTok.

“Glad you posted this," one artist said. "It really did look like it was from you!”

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