For over sixty years, Electa has played a dynamic role, documenting and examining the various segments of the visual arts. Its innovative publishing models, scientific quality, unmistakeable graphical image and care in the reproduction of images have made history in the illustrated publishing sector. The historic activities of the publishing house have opened up to new areas of interest over the years. The success of Electa’s publishing models also translates into a dense network of co-publishing projects with the leading foreign publishers in the sector and in direct distribution on the foreign markets, particularly the Anglo-Saxon one.

Electa’s catalogue includes books, art guides, exhibition catalogues and magazines.

The publishing house was established in 1945 in Florence, with a war-ravaged Italy in need of renewed vitality in its cultural identity as well. Electa’s initial publications were launched through the efforts of art historian Bernard Berenson, who chose the Tuscan capital as his new home. The publishing house’s role was clear right from the beginning: studying and disseminating art and monuments, and protecting them through knowledge, photographic documentation and critique.

At the end of the 1950s, the publishing house moved to Milan. In addition to the major projects for the protection of cultural heritage, involving systematic record-keeping for a number of Italian museums and galleries, significant attention is dedicated to the regional schools, to the minor arts and to sculpture. A number of series and magazines are thus created, making Electa the leading architectural publisher in the world.

Today, Electa is the top Italian publisher in the sector, based on the volume of its catalogue and the diversity of its series. Its work in exhibitions is becoming increasingly important, with an organisational structure able to handle major exhibition events.

The creation of popularization series, with the usual care paid to content and iconographic richness, marks an important shift in publishing activities, opening up to a new public, also thanks to accessible prices.

In more recent years, the publishing house has consolidated its role as global art expert and taken it into the future, opening up to contemporary art and to other forms of artistic expression, such as photography, industrial design and fashion, as well as contemporary architecture.

Other services offered by Electa include the organisation of international art exhibitions, management of museum bookshops and, through Mondadori Portfolio, marketing of its prestigious archive of art, architectural and other images for private, institutional and corporate clients.

Also of significant importance is Electa’s presence in the cultural heritage segment, through the promotion and management of museums and archaeological areas. Some examples of these are: Palazzo Ducale in Mantua, the Donna Regina Museum of Contemporary Art in Naples, the archaeological site of the Foro Romano, the Palatino and the Coliseum in Rome, as well as the Baths of Caracalla, the Appian Way and the National Gallery of Modern Art, also in Rome.