To Our Community,

We regret to inform you that we must suspend the print edition of Antiques and The Arts Weekly until the COVID-19 crisis abates. For our subscribers, however many issues the suspension lasts, we will add those weeks to your current subscription. We intend to resume our print issues.

On Friday March 19 at noon, we sent out a promotion to our advertisers and friends offering 90 percent off print advertising. We were excited to offer this to the community in a time of need, and that offer was broadly circulated.

Four hours later, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont issued an executive order commanding all non-essential workers in the state to stay home. It highlighted in plain English the severity of the situation at hand, one all officials—both state and Federal—had been slow-walking to this point so as to stem the collapse of the greater economy.

With or without that order, the effect on our advertising business in the months ahead is very much the same, and we are forced to reevaluate our position for the uncertain long-term. The United States is grinding to a halt, and with it the sort of events we’ve come to gather information on and fill these pages with. The auctions, the shows, the exhibitions—all on hold. Life is on hold. COVID-19 spreads across the nation and it forces upon us all a measure of loss that would have seemed unfathomable just last month. Many employees of The Bee Publishing Company who have helped create this weekly newspaper, for decades in some cases, received calls over the weekend that they were temporarily laid off.

Many folks in this industry make up the gears of small businesses: owners, employees, consultants and the self-employed; it’s these people who are the least insulated from hardship. The kind that makes the market drop by 30 percent, that throws you on unemployment, that sounds the alarm of tragedy. It feels sudden and ruinous.

We pride ourselves as experts of value—market-hardened know-it-alls. You’re the kind of person that can actually judge a book by its cover, and with good reason—you’ve paid attention. You’ve handled, sold or seen it before. You’ve read the books, you’ve sought out the exhibitions, and you understand the context, expanse and language.

There is nothing in the context of human creation more valuable than your life, those of your family and our most vulnerable. In their care we find real value—and we have tremendous hope that this too shall pass. Let’s take care of ourselves as we reconsider what value means.

While the Connecticut executive order exempted “news and media,” there are processes in printing a paper where folks must come together as a group. As employers, we must look out for our working family and have made the decision to not compromise our employees’ well-being.

Therefore, we will temporarily be providing a quality digital publication of Antiques and The Arts Weekly beginning with our April 10th issue. Our “E-Edition,” a replica of our print edition, is available on our website at antiquesandthearts.com, located in the top menu. The latest issue is available every Wednesday morning on our website and we deliver it by email every Wednesday afternoon within our “Headline News” newsletter. If you don’t already receive our “Headline News” newsletter, sign up for free on the top menu of our website by registering your name and email, or click here. Like our physical issue, the “E-Edition” reaches our community of the most voracious buyers in the world. And you, our subscribers—a dispersed body of auctioneers, specialists, dealers, collectors and curators—have things to sell.

We remain eager to help.

Advertising in Antiques and The Arts Weekly E-Edition is full color and 90 percent off our regular rates. We will vigorously promote your ads online on our website and through our social media accounts.

Email our advertising manager Cindie Niemiera at cindie@thebee.com or call us at 203-426-8036.

Our industry is high-touch—you must hold it to know it, and we look forward to returning to normalcy when touch again reigns supreme. We have no doubt that the industry will return shortly and we look forward to seeing our friends in person once again.

Greg Smith
Editor
Antiques and The Arts Weekly