“Barneys to New York is like Macy’s: it’s more than just a department store; it’s part of the culture of New York City,” Robert Feinstein, a lawyer representing Barney’s unsecured creditors, said in bankruptcy court on Thursday. “They have the Warehouse there, they have their wonderful windows at the holidays on Madison Avenue. We’re going to lose all of that today, and I think with a little more time we might have preserved it.”

The disappearance of Barneys adds to the broader shake-up in Manhattan retail of the past few years, highlighted by the loss of stores that were once considered institutions and ambitious new projects from out-of-towners. Lord & Taylor closed its flagship in January after selling the building to WeWork. Nordstrom, after years of planning, opened a seven-floor store near Columbus Circle last month, not long after Neiman Marcus opened its first store in the city.

Barneys was founded by Barney Pressman as a cut-price men’s retailer, but over three generations of family ownership it evolved into an elite and expensive purveyor of New York style. It ran into trouble, however, and declared bankruptcy in 1996. It changed hands several times after that, which some said watered down its identity. In 2010, a renovation made Barneys look just like its rivals, as fish tanks and mosaics were swapped out for generic marble. Richard Perry, the former hedge fund manager, took over as the retailer’s owner and chairman in 2012, but remained hands off. He did not appear in court during the bankruptcy proceedings.

Barneys also struggled with the move to online retail, perhaps too obsessed with the mystique of its own influence to understand influencer culture. That became more of an issue as the rents on its stores soared, thanks to deals agreed to in the early part of the century.

The real answer to what caused Barneys’ ills is probably a combination of all of the above. But what is certain is that Barneys fought to the end in an attempt to keep its stores open.

Daniella Vitale, the chief executive of Barneys, spent much of the summer meeting with potential purchasers. Gene Pressman, the member of the Barneys founding family who had driven the store’s expansion into women’s wear and, along with his brother Bob, helped mastermind the opening of its Madison Avenue location in 1993, considered jumping back into the fray “for about five minutes,” he said. He opted out because of the real estate issue.

By the middle of October, for all of Barneys’ efforts since filing for bankruptcy, it had attracted only a single qualified bid: Authentic Brands and B. Riley. Authentic Brands is known for buying the intellectual property of flailing retailers, then turning a profit by licensing their names to other companies for new products and earning royalties from those sales, typically without the bother of rent, store staff and inventory. B. Riley has an expertise in liquidations.