He’s a patron of the arts — the “con arts.”
Painters around the world are accusing Abraham Lubelski, founder, publisher and CEO of NY Arts Magazine, of bilking them of thousands of dollars they paid for gallery showings and magazine promotions that never materialized.
“I feel cheated. I paid $1,900. Most of us paid that amount,” said Maria Alves, a Portugal-based painter. “We all feel really bad about all of this. We try to call him, but when he finds out it’s one of the artists calling, he hangs up.”
Alves estimates 80 artists, all based outside the US, have been duped. They want their money and in some cases their artwork back.
Alves received an e-mail solicitation on Feb. 28 from Sarah Browning, the magazine’s “senior publicity/curator,” saying, “I came across your work and found it very impressive.” The e-mail offered a “unique opportunity to promote your work to an international viewership,” adding the annual fee “would include a yearlong publicity campaign and optional exhibition in our Soho gallery.”
After Alves paid, Browning e-mailed on July 17: “I am sad to inform you . . . that NY Arts Magazine is shutting down . . . I wish I had more information to tell you but I am in the dark myself.” Browning directed inquiries to Lubelski.
Lubelski, 73, told The Post he’s a victim of domestic turmoil. He said he was forced out of his seventh-floor loft on Broadway, which doubles as his exhibition space, by his 40-year-old wife, Hong Ju Zhang.
Zhang accused him of strangling her, grabbing her “forcefully” and calling her a “crazy woman,” according to court papers she filed July 14 in Manhattan Family Court for a restraining order.
“I couldn’t go back to my home. I cannot use it as a gallery. I can’t use it to work,” Lubelski told The Post, claiming he has shut down all his operations. “As soon as I can rectify things, I will rectify them.”
He ruled out refunding the cash he collected for services he admittedly did not perform because, he says, he can’t access his records.
The artists who sent him checks aren’t buying the sob story.
“Even if the story Lubelski told us about his personal problems is true, it wouldn’t be an excuse to keep our money and artworks any longer,” said Florian Hirzinger of Austria.
“My ad in NY Arts Magazine, one of the promised services for $1,900, has never been published, as the magazine has shut down. Plus my artwork is still stored in the gallery,” said Hirzinger.
Alves, in Lisbon, hired a lawyer from Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, who called the police. But cops said they can’t take a report unless it’s filed in person.
No one answered the doorbell at the gallery at 473 Broadway when a reporter visited last week. Zhang could not be reached.