New York- After four decades in the skin game, Penthouse magazine founder Bob Guccione is out.

The 73-year-old publisher refused to stay on board at the Penthouse empire after it was acquired two weeks ago in a bankruptcy sale following a year of legal wrangling.

The new owners said they offered Guccione a $500,000-a-year editor’s job for 10 years but he declined.

“He didn’t want to accept the offer; it was his decision,” said Dan Staton, one of the two investors who battled two other groups for control of the shrunken magazine with the big brand name, for about $52 million.

Guccione generated some $4 billion in revenue with the magazine since he founded it in 1965, while losing his $500 million personal fortune. The circulation also withered from three million to 400,000.

The contents of Guccione’s Hudson River country estate, valued at more than $250,000, were auctioned ealier this month, with the 20-room house on 82 riverfront acres also on the block to cover liens.

The former publisher lives in a few rooms of his once-opulent mansion off Fifth Avenue in the East 60s. The 45-room mansion, valued at more than $37 million, was sold out from underneath him earlier this year to pay debts and prevent a sheriff’s eviction.

The mansion’s new owner, Mexican investor Enrique Molina, who was trying to buy the Penthouse assets, had agreed to rescue Guccione and let him live in the mansion as part of his takeover strategy.

It wasn’t clear whether Guccione would remain there. His office didn’t return calls.

The new Penthouse owners are keeping the editorial team in place and hired about a half-dozen new staffers.