Robert Charles Joseph Edward Sabatini Guccione (/ɡuːtʃiˈoʊni/ goo-chee-OH-nee;[a] December 17, 1930 – October 20, 2010) was an American visual artist, photographer and publisher.

This was aimed at competing with Hugh Hefner's Playboy, but with more explicit erotic content, a special style of soft focus photography, and in-depth reporting of government corruption scandals and the art world.

Guccione was born in Brooklyn, New York, of Italian (Sicilian) descent and raised Catholic in Bergenfield, New Jersey, the eldest child of Anthony, an accountant, and Nina, a housewife.

[3][4][2] Penthouse began publication in 1965 in the United Kingdom and in North America in 1969, an attempt to compete with Hugh Hefner's Playboy.

Writers such as Craig S. Karpel, James Dale Davidson and Ernest Volkman, as well as the critically acclaimed Seymour Hersh, exposed numerous scandals and corruption at the highest levels of the United States government.

During the late 1960s, feminist groups criticized the magazine for supporting women's liberation only in terms of making them free to engage in sexual relationships with men.

[3] He reportedly once had his bodyguards eject a local radio personality who had been hired as a DJ and jumped into the swimming pool naked.

However, the counterculture movement led to an increasingly liberated sexual attitude after which a series of court rulings struck down most legal restrictions on pornography.

[3] Penthouse has also, over the years, featured a number of authorized and unauthorized photos of celebrities such as Madonna and Vanessa Lynn Williams.

The September 1984 issue in which Williams was first featured also included a layout with pornographic actress Traci Lords, who was only 15 when the photo shoot was done and was later revealed to be underage throughout most of her career.

The entire project was designed by Yugoslav architect Boris Magaš and realized through Brodokomerc, a local company.

Prior to that, the project needed to be authorized through a so-called workers' council, a process which Guccione described as "ridiculously easy".

[7][8] In 1976, Guccione used about US $17.5 million of his personal fortune to finance the controversial historical epic erotic film Caligula, with Malcolm McDowell in the title role and a supporting cast including Helen Mirren, John Gielgud and Peter O'Toole.

The film, released in late 1979, was produced in Italy (made at the Dear Studios in Rome) and was directed by Tinto Brass.

In 1975, for example, he was honored by Brandeis University for focusing "his editorial attention on such critical issues of our day as the welfare of the Vietnam veteran and problems of criminality in modern society.

In April 1978 he was named "Publisher of the Year" by the Atlantic Coast Independent Distributors Association in gratitude for his "leadership, his fair treatment and his continuing friendship with our members".

[13] Several wildly unsuccessful investments by Guccione—including the Penthouse Boardwalk Hotel and Casino (which lost $160 million)[3] and a (never-built) nuclear fusion power plant—added to his publishing empire's financial woes.

[14] Guccione's efforts to regain sales and notoriety, which included attempts to get Monica Lewinsky to pose for the magazine (which was parodied in a sketch on Saturday Night Live in 1998[15]) and offering the Unabomber a free forum for his views, failed to increase readership.

Penthouse International elected to forgo refinancing the house due to the combination of the penalties and the unfavorable lifetime lease of $1 per year that was granted to Guccione, which made the property unmarketable.

[28] Guccione also lost his country house in Staatsburg, New York, as the 15-room Baroque-style stucco mansion on a 75-acre property on the Hudson River was foreclosed and sold for $4 million.

He owned paintings by Sandro Botticelli, Albrecht Dürer, El Greco, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dalí, Giorgio de Chirico, Edgar Degas, Fernand Léger, Gilbert Stone, Henri Matisse, Jules Pascin, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Georges Henri Rouault, Chaïm Soutine, and Vincent van Gogh.

Much of the remaining personal collection of Bob Guccione's art, photographs, and memorabilia was acquired by entrepreneur Jeremy Frommer in early 2012.

[34] The items obtained by Frommer were the inspiration for his company Jerrick Ventures LLC's creation of the website Filthy Gorgeous Media, which debuted in June 2013.