Milton Esterow, a New York Times art journalist who, in 1972 bought and reinvigorated ARTnews magazine and, at both media outlets, helped bring an investigative edge to culture reporting, especially regarding artwork looted by the Nazis. Mr. Esterow died Oct. 3 at his home in Manhattan He was 97.

A draft of his final article for The Times, focused on the restitution of art stolen during the Holocaust — written, as always, on Mr. Esterow’s 1950 Royal typewriter, was submitted before he died and is scheduled for publication in the near future.

Under his stewardship as publisher and editor ARTnews became one of the most widely circulated art magazines. It won a National Magazine Award for general excellence in 1981, and George Polk awards for cultural reporting in 1980 and 1991, the latter for investigating art stolen by the Soviets during its occupation of Germany after WWII.

Mr. Esterow loathed what he considered the inaccessibility of much art criticism. He joked in a 2009 lecture that for years he had sought grants from the National Endowment of the Arts for those who wanted to write simple declarative sentences.