the bankruptcy filling: This decision was not easy, nor should it have been. Johnson Publishing Company is an iconic part of American and African American history since our founding in 1942, and the company's impact on society cannot be overstated."Johnson Publishing Company Filed for Bankruptcy". Cision PR Newswire. prnewswire.com. April 9, 2019. Retrieved July 27, 2019. On April 22, 2019, Mellody Hobson, president of Chicago-based Ariel Investments, and her husband, film maker George Lucas, petitioned to take possession of the Ebony photo archives. They stated that the collection had been used as collateral for a $12 million loan that Johnson Publishing received from Capital Holdings V, which is owned by Hobson and Lucas, in 2015. In July 2019 as part of the bankruptcy proceedings, the more than 4 million item Ebony and Jet archives were auctioned off in Chicago. Winning the week-long auction was the $30 million bid by a consortium of foundations led by the J. Paul Getty Trust, with co-purchasers the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The archives will go to the Getty Research Institute and the National Museum of African American History and Culture to be made digitally available to the public. As of 2022, more than 4-million items have been undergoing cataloging and conservation in Chicago by archivist Steven Booth, and were being lent out for programs and exhibitions. In January 2020 Johnson Publishing Company auctioned its art collection, the last of its major assets. The 87-piece art collection included works by Carrie Mae Weems, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Dindga McCannon, Kenneth Victor Young and Walter J. Williams. The auction earned just under three million dollars. Legacy and tributes In 2010, Chicago Public Schools and Noble Network of Charter Schools opened Johnson College Prep, a public charter high school in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood which was named in honor of John H. and Eunice Johnson. The Chicago History Museum created an exhibition titled Inspiring Beauty: 50 Years Of Ebony Fashion Fair, which was on display from March 2013 until May 2014. The exhibition traveled around the country, including stops at the Museum of Design Atlanta and the Milwaukee Art Museum. The Rebuild Foundation held an exhibition for the company called A Johnson Publishing Story at The Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago, Illinois. The exhibition, which featured paintings, books, sculptures, furnishings and interior design elements from the