Last updated: 3 September 2026. Version 1.0.
This page sets out how Artevivo Magazine decides what to publish, how we check it, what we do when we get it wrong, and where the line runs between our journalism and our commercial arrangements. It is published so that readers can hold us to it.
1. What we publish
Artevivo publishes original, commissioned editorial about Italian art, design and cultural heritage. We do not run wire copy, we do not rewrite press releases into articles, and we do not aggregate other publications’ reporting and present it as our own.
Every article belongs to one of six sections — Old Masters, Modern & Contemporary, Museums & Exhibitions, Architecture & Design, Craft & Heritage, Photography — and is written by someone with demonstrable knowledge of that field.
2. Sourcing
Our order of preference for sources is, in descending order:
- Primary documents — archival records, contracts, inventories, conservation reports, excavation reports, legal instruments, official statistics.
- The institution that holds the object — museum catalogue entries, collection databases, curatorial publications, foundation and archive websites.
- Peer-reviewed scholarship and exhibition catalogues.
- Reputable specialist and general journalism, used for recent events and always attributed.
Encyclopaedias and user-edited reference sites are used as a finding aid to locate primary sources. They are not cited as authority and we do not link to them.
Where a claim rests on a single source, the text says so. Where sources disagree — on a dimension, a foundation date, the number of surviving objects by a maker, an attendance figure — we report the disagreement rather than choosing the most convenient figure and presenting it as settled.
3. Fact-checking before publication
Every article is checked before it goes live against the following list.
- Names — spelling, accents, full form on first use, correct current title and institution for living people.
- Dates — of birth, death, commission, completion, restoration, opening. A date given to the year is checked; a date given to the day is checked twice.
- Numbers — dimensions, weights, costs, visitor figures, quantities. Units are given in metric, with the original unit noted where a historical source used one.
- Locations — that the work is where we say it is, today, not where it was when a book was written. Works move, and loans and deposits are frequently misreported.
- Attributions — that the attribution we give is the one currently accepted by the holding institution, and that contested attributions are described as contested.
- Quotations — traced to a documented published source. We do not use a quotation we cannot source, and we do not repeat a famous line simply because it is famous. Apocryphal quotations attributed to Michelangelo, Leonardo and Brunelleschi are especially common and are not used.
- Links — every outbound link is opened and confirmed to reach the page it claims to reach.
- Currency and status — for anything that changes, we check on the date of publication: opening hours, closures for restoration, directorships, exhibition dates, listings.
Where a fact cannot be verified, it is removed. An article that reads well is worth less than an article that is right.
4. What we do not do
- We do not invent, embellish or composite quotations, sources or scenes.
- We do not present speculation as established fact, and we mark informed inference as inference.
- We do not authenticate, attribute, value or appraise objects, and we do not give advice on buying, selling or investing. See our Disclaimer.
- We do not publish rumours about attributions or sales without an on-the-record source.
- We do not accept payment, gifts, hospitality or access in exchange for coverage or for a particular slant.
- We do not give any interviewee, institution or advertiser the right to approve an article before publication. We may check a specific technical passage with an expert for accuracy; that check covers facts, not framing or conclusions.
5. Independence and conflicts of interest
Artevivo Edizioni S.r.l. has no ownership or financial relationship with any museum, gallery, auction house, dealer, foundation or artist’s estate.
Contributors must disclose to the editor any relationship that a reasonable reader would want to know about: paid work for an institution being written about, a family or personal connection to a subject, ownership of a work by an artist under discussion, an unpaid advisory role, or a pending application for a grant or a post. Where a contributor has such a relationship and the piece still merits publication, the relationship is disclosed in the article itself.
Press trips, complimentary tickets and preview access are commonplace in arts journalism and we sometimes accept them, because some things cannot be written about without seeing them. Where an institution has paid for or provided travel, accommodation or access, that is stated at the foot of the article. Acceptance never carries an obligation to write, or to write favourably, and we say so to the institution in advance.
6. Advertising and sponsored content
Advertising is sold by a commercial function that has no role in editorial decisions. Advertisers do not see articles before publication, are not told what is coming, and cannot buy coverage.
Commercial content — where a third party has paid for or influenced the content of a piece — is labelled unambiguously at the top of the piece as “Sponsored”, “Paid partnership with X” or “Advertisement feature”, is visually distinguished from editorial, and is excluded from editorial listings. Where affiliate links appear, they are disclosed on the page. Full terms are on our Advertising page.
7. Images
Images are chosen for what they show, not for decoration. Every image carries a caption identifying the work or subject, its date, the collection or location, and, where applicable, the photographer and the licence.
We publish reproductions of public domain works, and photographs made available under free licences, and we comply with the terms of those licences. Works still in copyright are not reproduced without permission, which is why articles on twentieth-century artists are often illustrated with a museum, a studio or a city rather than the work under discussion.
Photographs are not manipulated beyond adjustments that do not change what is depicted: cropping, straightening, and correction of exposure and colour balance. Any composite or illustration is labelled as such. We do not publish AI-generated images of real artworks, real people or real places, and we do not present synthetic imagery as documentary.
8. Use of artificial intelligence
Articles are written and edited by people. We may use software tools for transcription, translation of source material, spelling and grammar checking, and for finding documents. A tool never determines what an article says, and no text produced by a generative model is published as our journalism without a named editor having verified every factual claim in it against sources.
9. Corrections
We correct errors on the record. Our practice is:
- Typographical and formatting errors are fixed silently.
- Factual errors — a wrong date, name, figure, attribution or location — are corrected in the text, and a dated correction note is appended at the foot of the article saying what was changed. The note stays there permanently.
- Substantial errors that materially change the sense of a piece are corrected in the same way, with the note placed at the top of the article as well.
- Updates that reflect events after publication, rather than errors, are marked as updates and dated. They are not corrections and are labelled differently.
- We do not quietly delete an article to make an error disappear. Where a piece must be withdrawn entirely, the URL is retained with a note explaining that it was withdrawn and why.
To report an error, write to [email protected] with the article title, the passage in question and a source we can check. We acknowledge within two working days and correct as soon as the point is verified.
10. Right of reply
A person or institution criticised in an article may request a right of reply. Where the criticism is substantial and the reply is proportionate, relevant and not defamatory of a third party, we publish it, either as a note appended to the article or as a separate piece. This is offered in the spirit of Article 8 of Italian Law No. 47/1948, though this publication is not a registered periodical for the purposes of that law.
11. Sources and confidentiality
Where a source speaks to us in confidence, we protect their identity. We will not disclose it to any third party, and we will resist compelled disclosure so far as the law permits. We prefer on-the-record sourcing and use unattributed information only where the information is of clear public interest and cannot be obtained on the record.
12. Complaints
Complaints about editorial content should be sent to [email protected], setting out the article, the passage complained of, and what you say is wrong with it. Complaints are answered by an editor who was not responsible for the piece where that is practicable. If the outcome does not satisfy you, you retain every legal remedy available to you.