This collection of ventures is essentially one entity. They have offices in NYC and possibly, Beijing, China. Each arm of the entity serves to support the activities of the others, lending legitimacy to each other by looking like separate enterprises.

Forum post by a former NY Arts Magazine intern:

“I was an intern there…………
yes, that is true, NYArtsMagazine and World Art Media, and Broadway Gallery are same company, those 3 companies in the same office. First of all, World Art Media tell unknown young artists to promote them, to find a gallery, post their articles on magazines, and etc, but they are in same office,. and actually, they do not promote artists at all, unfortunately so fake companies,,, at nyartsmagazine website, they show list of distributors, but that’s also fake.

and, nyartsmagazine and art fairs international magazine and china art magazine are all same contents magazine, publisher called himself as “great artist” but pretty fake, to tell the truth, he does not know anything about art.. he does not have any training”

Side note: I came across many old “job” postings by the different arms of World Art Media looking for unpaid interns. They seem to go through an awful lot of them. In fact, today, December 22nd, 2008, they have the following notice on their site:

“Internship Opportunities at NY Arts Magazine

Graphic Design, Editorial Assistance, Web Related Works, Internet Research, Gallery Research…”

From another forum poster in the same thread:

“World Art Media in New York is run by scam artist abraham lubelski (he is notoriously despised by much of the New York art scene).He is the publisher of the very little known NY Arts Magazine. For $500 you can have your artwork (a thumbnail) and a blurb about your work…Then three weeks later they bother you telling you that you want an article (written by unpaid interns) for $1,400.00 and they don’t stop there… for the price of a new car you can buy your own show in Lubelski’s apartment. The best part is you do not have to be a talented artist, you can do a paint by numbers and as long as you have the cash to fork up he will tell you that you really have something and coerce you to give hime more money.”

Several other galleries appear involved in some way, including the Berliner Kunstprojekt in Berlin, Germany and the Color Elefante Gallery in Valencia, Spain.

Complaint from 3/20/2007:

“World Art Media in New York is absolutely a scam! They target impressionable naive artists thousands of dollars to be a part of NY Arts Magazine. The introductory fee is $500. But they charge thousands for articles and other silly projects like having one slide shown on a screen during an art fair for 0.5 seconds. Don’t give into them..they will buy your soul and shame your artwork.”

This published correspondence with an artist reveals how the process works.

The Agora Gallery is a similar venture. It even includes a magazine, ARTisSpectrum.

Complaint:

“Let me re-iterate. The Agora Gallery in NY is the Tacky, Black-Hole, Rip-off establishment to beat all others of it’s kind.”

L’Atelier Robert Coane keeps a list of vanity ventures, to warn his fellow artists.

PRO: A person who is unable to receive the level of third-party interest that they desire can pay for vanity services and use the resulting articles, shows, awards, photos, books and so on for purposes of self-promotion.

For example, using footage of vanity events can be useful when putting together a promotional video. The general public will be unaware of the true nature of the event. When well done, it can look quite impressive.

CON: The artist is often unaware that legitimate businesses don’t operate in this manner. Real art magazines, galleries, agents and so on never ask for money upfront. Galleries and agents make a percentage of the artist’s earnings from sales of their work, while magazines feature artists who will help them sell their magazines by grabbing the attention of potential buyers.

Most vanity operations vastly overvalue their services. They’re often not upfront about how much their services will ultimately cost, and sometimes fail to mention that there’s a fee at all. They claim that they can deliver valuable exposure, and connect the artist with all the right people. They make themselves appear very important. They pander to the ego and prey on hopes, dreams and desperation.

Vanity enterprises frequently use business names that can easily be confused with legitimate ventures, or that are so generic that researching their background becomes extremely difficult. There’s only so many pages of Google search results that the average person will look through giving up.

Once a vanity operation has extracted money from an artist, they usually go back for more, with increasingly expensive offers. If they were offering genuinely useful exposure, this might worth the price. Unfortunately, merely listing a vanity promotion on a resume or website can cause legitimate businesses to view the artist negatively. It’s often interpreted as a sign that one’s work is incapable of achieving recognition on its own merits.

Bottom line: Most industry insiders see vanity ventures as scams and recommend that you steer clear.

Dear Speaker Pelosi,

The amount of bailout money being asked for by the auto industry is far in excess of their current total value on the free market. An outright purchase of these entities by the US government would be a far better deal for taxpayers than simply handing over more cash that we really don’t have.

The major US automakers have owned patents for numerous fuel-saving and fuel-free technologies since the mid-70s. Rather than use these patents, they hid them away, preferring instead to save the money they’d have to spend on retooling their manufacturing facilities. As a consequence, foreign automakers took the lead, leaving US automakers in the predictable situation that they now face.

As the owners of these companies, taxpayers could do something the CEOs won’t… We could pull those patents out of their vaults and move forward aggressively with plugin hybrid, electric and V2G vehicles. In the process, we could radically reduce our dependence on foreign oil and slow global warming.

Lastly, I find it suspicious that when universal health plans are put forward by people like Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the American people are told that there’s not enough money to fund it. When something like the Apollo Project is presented as a way to slow or even halt global warming, we’re told that there’s not enough money to fund it. When Social Security needs some shoring up to be solvent into the future, we’re old that there’s not enough money to fund it.

And yet, when Congress decides on a unilateral war, or the wealthiest people in the country say that they need a bailout after seriously mismanaging their businesses, suddenly we have the money. It’s enough to make any taxpayer sick.

If you feel you must move forward on bailouts of any kind, then I ask just one thing: Each and every one of them must have far, far more oversight, preconditions and return on investment to taxpayers than anything that Congress is currently considering.

Thank you in advance for your consideration of these suggestions.

Sincerely,
Heidi Allen

As the name indicates, the Nigerian scam originated in Nigeria, but it has since become an international phenomenon. The scam has the following hallmarks:

* The author has nowhere else to turn and thinks you can be trusted.

* They own or have come across a large amount of money.

* They are unable to get the money without your help.

* In exchange, you’ll receive a big reward.

* They want to discuss the specifics with you, so please write back ASAP.

* If you write back, you’ll eventually learn that you have to put up money of your own to get your reward. Of course, they’ll just take your money and disappear.

These emails are successful because they push your greed, ego and compassion buttons, but more importantly, because scammers can send out millions of these things for free. Eventually, they’ll find a sucker.

This new version claims to be from an American soldier in Iraq. That makes it especially dangerous and loathsome, since so many Americans are willing to do anything they can for our troops:

How are you and your family? Hope all is well. My name is Staff Sgt. Shelby Cross; I am an American soldier, serving in the military with the army?s 3rd infantry division. with a very desperate need for assistance, i have summed up courage to contact you.

I found your contact particulars in an address journal. I am seeking your kind assistance to move the sum of US$8m [eight million United State dollars] to you in United State; as far as I can be assured that my share will be safe in your care until I complete my service here.

Source of money;

Some money in US dollars were discovered in dog kennels at a farm house and guest houses in  an estate near one of saddam?s old palaces in Baghdad, Iraq during an operation, and it was agreed by Staff Sgt. kenneth Buff, Sgt 1st Class Daniel Van Ess and I that some part of this money be shared amongst us before informing anybody about it. Since both of them saw the money first, they did the informing, while I played the outsider to protect our interest. This was quite an illegal thing to do, but I tell you what? No compensation can make up for the risk we have taken with our lives in this hell hole, in which my brother in-law was killed by a road side bomb last time.

The above figure was given to me as my share, and to conceal this kind of money became a problem for me even after the initial probe of all soldiers of our command which I was cleared from; so with the help of a British contact working here and his office enjoy some immunity, I was able to get the package out to a safe location entirely out of trouble spot. He does not know the real contents of the package, and believes that it belongs to a British/American medical doctor who died in a raid here in Iraq, and before giving up, trusted me to hand over the package to his family in United States. I have now found a much secured way of getting the package out of Iraq to United State for you to pick up, and I will discuss this with you When I am sure that you are willing to assist me, and I believe that my money will be well secured in your hand because you have the fear of God.

I want you to tell me how much you will take from this money for the assistance you will give to me. One passionate appeal I will make to you is not to discuss this matter with anybody, should you have reason to reject this offer, please and please destroy this message as any leakage of this information will be too bad for us soldier?s here in Iraq and tarnish the reputation of other service men. I do not know how long we will remain here, and I have been shot, wounded and survived two suicide bomb attacks by the special grace of God,this and other reasons I will mention later has prompted me to reach out for help, I honestly want this matter to be resolved immediately, please contact me as soon as possible.

God bless you and your family.

Sgt.Shelby Cross.

Let your Senators and Representatives know that this is what you want. (Or edit it to MAKE it what you want.) It’s our money and (more importantly) our debt burden. WE should have a say!

1. Reinstatement of the provisions of Glass-Steagall, which forbade speculation

2. Re-regulation of the finance, insurance, and real estate industries

3. Accountability on the part of those who took the companies down:

  a) resignations of management

  b) givebacks of executive compensation packages

  c) limitations on executive compensation

 d) admission by CEO’s of what went wrong and how, prior to any government  bailout

4. Demands for transparency

  a) with respect to analyzing the transactions which took the companies down

  b) with respect to Treasury’s dealings with the companies pre and post-bailout

5. An equity position for the taxpayers

   a) some form of ownership of assets

6. Some credible formula for evaluating the price of the assets that the government is buying.

7. A sunset clause on the legislation

8. Full public disclosure by members of Congress of assets held, with possible conflicts put in blind trust.

9. A ban on political campaign contributions from officers of corporations receiving bailouts

10. A requirement that 2008 cycle candidates return political contributions to officers and representatives of corporations receiving bailouts

Thanks, Dennis!