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Modern Media Holdings acquires majority stake in ArtReview

Art Review and Modern Media Holdings have announced the acquisition of a majority shareholding in ArtReview, ArtReview Asia and artreview.com by Modern Media, the Chinese communications group.

Modern Media Holdings acquires majority stake in ArtReview
Thomas Shao: “We will also continue ArtReview’s innovation into live events and cross-regional and interdisciplinary fields of collaboration.”

As a result, ArtReview, ArtReview Asia and artreview.com will join a multimedia publishing organisation that includes The Art Newspaper China, LEAP, Modern Weekly, Nowness and Numéro, among other titles, and a group that can bring the magazines’ content to new platforms and new audiences worldwide, says ArtReview.

The magazines will continue to operate out of its London headquarters and regional offices.

Announcing the acquisition, Thomas Shao, chair and founder of Modern Media Holdings Ltd, said: “Modern Media’s art platform (Modern Art) lives by the motto ‘Integrate Art into Life and Rebuild Society with Art’. This is a philosophy we share with ArtReview, giving me high hopes and great confidence for our future together.”

“Modern Media will consolidate its diverse resources: its brand network, funding streams, technology infrastructure and marketing clout, to support ArtReview and ArtReview Asia’s development, focusing especially on the expansion of digital and data platforms. Together we will also continue ArtReview’s innovation into live events and cross-regional and interdisciplinary fields of collaboration.”

“ArtReview has a long and important history in the shaping of twentieth and now twenty-first-century art history,” said Dennis Hotz, former chairman and, with Debbie Hotz, former sole shareholder of Art Review Ltd. “In recent years the brand has launched innovative new products such as the influential Power 100 ranking of the key individuals driving the contemporary artworld, and ArtReview Asia, which offers specialist coverage of the dynamic Asian art scene and an alternative perspective on the history of contemporary art. Modern Media, a company that has art and the creative industries at its heart, is ideally placed to build on the achievements and heritage of the magazines and take ArtReview and ArtReview Asia forward to engage with an increasingly globalised, multiplatform and fast-moving artworld.”