Terms of Use

1. About these terms

These terms govern your use of artmena.com and every service on it (together, “Artmena”, “we”, “us”). By visiting the site, creating an account, opening a studio, listing a work or sending an inquiry, you agree to these terms and to our Privacy policy. If you do not agree, do not use Artmena.

You must be at least 16 to create an account and at least 18, or the age of majority where you live, to reserve, buy or sell a work. If you use Artmena for a gallery, company or other organisation, you confirm that you are authorised to accept these terms on its behalf, and “you” includes that organisation.

2. What Artmena is

Artmena is an online publication, directory and marketplace for art from the Middle East and North Africa. We publish editorial content and profiles of artists, galleries, institutions and exhibitions, and we let galleries and artists present works and receive inquiries from collectors.

Unless we expressly agree otherwise in writing, Artmena is not the seller, buyer, agent, auctioneer, broker, appraiser or shipper of any work. We do not own, hold, inspect or authenticate the works listed, and we are not a party to any sale between a collector and a gallery or artist.

3. Accounts

• The information you give us must be true, complete and kept up to date.
• You are responsible for everything done through your account. Keep your password private, do not share your account, and tell us at once at support@artmena.com if you suspect unauthorised use.
• One person may not hold several accounts to get around a suspension or a limit.
• We may refuse, suspend or close any account, remove any content, or limit any feature, at any time and at our discretion, including where we reasonably suspect a breach of these terms, fraud or a risk to other users or to Artmena.

4. Studio accounts for artists and galleries

Studios are by invitation. We decide who receives one, and everything published from a studio is subject to our review and approval. We may edit, decline, unpublish or remove any profile, listing, image or text, and we decide how and where content appears on the site. By using a studio you promise, each time you publish, that:

• you own each work you list or are authorised in writing by its owner to offer it, and you have the right to publish every image and text you upload;
• each work is authentic and is by the artist named; its title, date, medium, dimensions, edition, condition, provenance and price are accurate and not misleading;
• no work is stolen, looted, illegally exported, forged, subject to a claim, lien or dispute, or subject to sanctions, and you can lawfully sell and deliver it;
• you will keep availability and prices current, mark a work as sold or withdrawn without delay, and answer collectors’ inquiries promptly and in good faith;
• you will comply with every law that applies to you and your sales, including tax, export, cultural heritage, anti-money-laundering and sanctions laws.

5. Inquiries, reservations and sales

• No payment is taken on Artmena. Sending a question or a reservation request passes your details to the gallery or artist who holds the work. A reservation is a request only: it is not a purchase, an offer we make, or a guarantee that the work is available or will be held for you.
• Any sale is a contract between the buyer and the seller alone. Price, payment, invoicing, taxes, duties, export permits, shipping, insurance, condition, authenticity, certificates, returns and refunds are agreed and handled between them, and are their responsibility.
• Collectors should satisfy themselves before buying, including by asking for a condition report, provenance and a certificate of authenticity. Prices shown are set by the seller and are not a valuation by Artmena.
• We are not responsible for a seller’s or buyer’s failure to complete a sale, for the condition, authenticity, legality or value of any work, or for any dispute between them. We may, but need not, help resolve a dispute.

6. Commission and introductions

Galleries and artists who sell through Artmena pay the commission or fees set out in their written agreement with us. A collector is introduced by Artmena when they first contact the seller about a work, artist or exhibition through Artmena, or after finding it on Artmena.

Sellers may not avoid commission or fees by moving a sale introduced by Artmena off the platform, by selling the same or another work to that collector directly within 24 months of the introduction, or by asking a collector to do so. Any such sale is treated as made through Artmena, and the commission becomes payable in full. We may ask for records reasonably needed to check sales made to collectors we introduced.

7. Content you give us

You keep ownership of what you upload. You grant Artmena a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable and sub-licensable licence to host, store, reproduce, resize, crop, format, translate, display, publish and distribute it on Artmena and in promoting Artmena and your work, including on our social media accounts, newsletters, alerts, partner listings and in the press. The licence lasts while the content is on Artmena and for a reasonable time after removal, and it continues for content already published in posts, newsletters, archives and backups.

You are responsible for your content. You confirm it does not infringe anyone’s copyright, trademark, privacy or other rights, and that anyone shown in it has agreed to its publication.

8. Our directory and editorial content

We prepare editorial articles and directory profiles of artists, galleries, institutions and exhibitions from public sources and our own research. We take care to be accurate but we do not guarantee that any information is complete, current or free of errors, and it is not professional, financial or investment advice. Editorial decisions, including what to publish, correct or remove, are ours alone. To ask for a correction or removal of a page about you, write to support@artmena.com.

9. Our rights

Artmena, its name and logo, its design, software, editorial texts, photographs we commission, and the selection and arrangement of its directory and database belong to us or our licensors and are protected by intellectual property and database laws. Images of artworks remain the copyright of the artists or other rights holders.

You may view the site and share links to it for personal, non-commercial use. You may not copy, republish, sell, frame or create derivative products from Artmena or any substantial part of its content or database, and you may not use any of it to build a competing service or to train, test or improve any artificial intelligence or machine-learning system, without our prior written permission.

10. Acceptable use

You must not:

• break any law, or use Artmena to commit or help with fraud, money laundering or sanctions evasion;
• list a work you are not entitled to sell, post a fake, misleading or bait listing, or misstate any detail of a work;
• impersonate any person, gallery or institution, or claim a profile that is not yours;
• scrape, crawl, harvest or bulk-download content or contact details, or use bots or automated tools, except search-engine crawlers that follow our robots file;
• get around, test or interfere with our security, rate limits or security checks, probe for vulnerabilities, or access data that is not yours;
• upload malware, overload the site, or interfere with its operation or other users’ use of it;
• spam, harass or threaten anyone, or use contact details obtained through Artmena for anything other than the inquiry or sale concerned;
• post content that is unlawful, defamatory, hateful, obscene or infringes anyone’s rights.

11. Copyright and rights complaints

If you believe content on Artmena infringes your rights, write to support@artmena.com with the content’s address, the right you hold, and your contact details. We will review it and may remove the content and close the accounts of repeat infringers.

12. Other websites

Artmena links to galleries, institutions, social networks and other sites we do not control. We are not responsible for their content, offers, practices or availability.

13. No warranties

Artmena is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the fullest extent the law allows, we give no warranty of any kind, express or implied, including about the accuracy of content, the availability, authenticity, quality, legality or value of any work, the conduct of any user, or that the site will be uninterrupted, secure or free of errors. We may change, suspend or discontinue any part of Artmena at any time.

14. Limits on our liability

To the fullest extent the law allows:

• we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, revenue, sales, opportunity, goodwill or data, however caused;
• we are not liable for any loss arising from a sale, a failed sale, a dispute between users, or a work’s condition, authenticity, legality, value, shipping or loss;
• our total liability to you for all claims connected with Artmena is limited to the greater of the fees you paid us in the 12 months before the claim and 100 US dollars.

Nothing in these terms limits liability for fraud, wilful misconduct or gross fault, or any other liability that cannot be limited under the law that applies, including mandatory consumer rights.

15. Your responsibility to us

You will compensate Artmena and its team for any claim, loss, damage, fine, cost or expense, including reasonable legal fees, arising from your content, your listings, your sales or purchases, your breach of these terms, or your breach of any law or of anyone’s rights.

16. Ending your use

You can stop using Artmena and delete your account at any time from Delete your account. We may suspend or end your access at any time, with or without notice. Sections 6, 7, 9 and 13 to 19 continue after your account ends, as does any commission already earned.

17. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. We will change the date at the top and, for changes that materially affect account holders, tell them by email before the change takes effect. If you keep using Artmena after a change takes effect, you accept the updated terms.

18. Law and disputes

These terms and any dispute connected with Artmena are governed by the laws of Lebanon. The courts of Beirut have exclusive jurisdiction, except that we may seek urgent or protective relief, or enforce a judgment or commission due, in any competent court. This does not take away any mandatory protection you have under the law where you live.

19. General

These terms, the Privacy policy and any written agreement you have with us are the whole agreement between us about Artmena; a written agreement prevails where it conflicts with these terms. If a provision is found invalid, the rest stays in force. If we do not enforce a right straight away, we have not waived it. You may not transfer your rights under these terms; we may transfer ours as part of a reorganisation or a sale of Artmena. If these terms are translated, the English version prevails.

20. Contact

Questions about these terms: support@artmena.com.