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A LETTER FROM AXA ART   
Dr. Dietrich von Frank
As a specialist insurer–unique in the global industry–the AXA Art Insurance Corporation has dedicated its insurance products to the preservation and protection of art. The company covers private and institutional collections and art exhibitions, as well as a sizable portion of the art trade. As such, we play in integral part in the art world, offering our art historical services and all risks coverages to private and commericial collectors alike.
It seemed a natural fit, therefore, for us to become the sole sponsor of an exhibition celebrating the one-hundredth anniversary of the magazine ARTnews, this indispensable monthly source of excellent information about art, which over a hundred years grew to become an integral part of international journalism under its six distinguished publishers.
When Milton Esterow approached me in the summer of 2000 with the quest for financial underwriting of an exhibition featuring photography of artists and their oeuvre who had appeared in ARTnews, since 1902, I was fascinated with the concept of his intent to personalize and individualize this centennial celebration through a medium whose coming of age so perfectly parallels the lifespan of ARTnews.
The collaboration between ARTnews and AXA Art Insurance Corporation would have been unthinkable, however, without the participation of the National Portrait Gallery, which took it upon itself to put together this unique show.
At a time when images more and more replace the written word, ARTnews is and will be uniquely positioned to continue to bring us the kind of journalism that we need to form our own opinions about art—as it has done for the past one hundred years. |