Maybe I am mistaken, but I don't think many ever considered Yuri a great artist.  His brilliance was/is in self promotion.  Otherwise he's just a competent stock photographer, good at copying the ideas and styles that sold well.

if you sort by  new yuri istock portfolio , first 10 pages are very average photos and extremly similar. boring, not a work by a pro.

Well, I am not informed sufficiently well to agree or disagree with you guys in this regard. What I remember is that 10 years ago I didn't notice him doing any unusually large amounts of self-promotion, if compared to other mcstockers. But what I remember is his photos (he started with gold fish, afair) which were made in his unique light style, and also the way how his models were glowing in his photos. I don't know if he copied somebody but hundreds tried to copy him and/or learn from him, that's for sure.

Besides, regarding (self)promotion in general. You see, many artists, which are regarded as great nowadays, were just ones of many during their times but became famous only after they found certain unique ways to promote themselves. Somebody managed to get into a prestigious magazine, somebody  managed to pull the fat contract from a corporation, somebody was making portraits of influential people
and invested earnings into a little army of PR noise-makers. Their contemporaries, which were less street-smart or wealthy, remained in shadow forever - often despite being more talented. Hence, there comes the question: what's the ultimate objective criterion of greatness? If it is fame and money then YA has made it, afaik. If it's about seeing someone's products hanging on every second billboard then I see his models a way more often than Mona Lisa, hehe. If it's about being remembered forever then who will be remembered forever with the absolute certainty?

Yuri is a narcisist and if he had done well we would have known. I think he makes less than he did before his move and that his million dollar investment in that mobile phone stock agency has returned him a loss.

I presume that everything has a price to pay, even the money themselves...

The phonecam stock seems to be a natural next link in the chain "analog cams - digital cams" but maybe its time hasn't come yet.

I remember those posts by Yuri Arcurs etc. about shutting down their relations with conventional mcstock agencies and the wake it caused at that time... It seems that all is quiet again?