Two former top execs of Blouin Media, publisher of artinfo.com and Art + Auction, said the company withheld nearly $250,000 in pay and commissions due them over the past year.
Art + Auction’s former publisher, Catherine (Kate) Shanley, and associate publisher, Wendy Buckley, filed suit in Manhattan Supreme Court earlier this week claiming that Blouin owes Shanley $137,431.32 and that Buckley is owed $90,025.65.
Lawyer Wendy Stryker said papers were served on Louise Blouin, company president Ben Hartley and Blouin Media on Wednesday.
Blouin has asserted to staffers that the plantiffs were “greedy” or “evil” and that they “stole” money and clients and commissions, the suit claims.
A Blouin spokesperson on Thursday said “there were disputed commissions that did not belong to them, and that is why they were terminated.”
In 2013, Shanley and Buckley were the top-billing executives at the company, legal papers claim.
Shanley was responsible for $1.7 million in ad sales, and Buckley was responsible for $1.2 million in sales, according to the suit.
When they complained about missing pay checks and commission payments, they were terminated, it is alleged.
They also said that despite many years of service at the company they were classified as independent contractors when they should have been classified as full-time employees, papers charge.
Shanley and Buckley were among a number of former staffers who are starting Artnet News, a digital publication that aims to compete with Artinfo.com.
Ben Genocchio is the editor in chief of Artnet News. Blouin told Media Ink that he was “fired.”
Genocchio insisted he resigned on Dec. 12 because he had grown tired of Blouin’s “nonsense” and joined Artnet in early January to start the rival publication with other ex-staffers.
Separately, rumors are swirling that Hartley himself is heading to the exit door at Blouin Media.
“I appreciate your interest in my career, but I am not going to discuss it with you or your readers,” Hartley said Thursday.