How to move your art
Two handlers brace a soft-packed artwork inside a custom-fitted crate.

While moving house, we worry if our possessions will be transported safely. Our anxiety only grows when it comes to unique items such as fine artworks, heirloom antiques, and family memorabilia — things that cannot be replaced if they get damaged or destroyed.

Fortunately, the past decade has witnessed the blossoming of “fine art logistics,” an industry of professionals who get artworks safely from Point A to Point B. This field’s growth has been stimulated by the global proliferation of auctioneers, galleries, online platforms, fairs, and museum exhibition tours, but individual collectors have also played a role and now stand to benefit from the overall raising of standards.

Only 25 years ago, it was difficult to find a firm that understood the special challenges of moving an artwork across town or across the world; hardly any trucks featured the “air-ride” shock absorbers that prevent paint from chipping off a century-old canvas, or the climate-controlled cargo holds that ensure a wooden sculpture will not dry out and split apart. Now, with a bit of online research and some pointed questions on the phone, collectors residing anywhere in the U.S. can find a suitable firm.

Not surprisingly, today’s best practices in fine art logistics were pioneered in partnership with leading museums. Museum staffers see every object in their collections as precious, and so they literally wear the “white gloves” we all associate with superior service to move artworks around their own facilities. When it comes time to send an artwork offsite (on temporary loan, for example), museums turn to specialist fine art shipping firms. What appears below is the gold standard — the safest (and most expensive) way they do it. Not every privately owned artwork merits all of these steps, of course, and not every collector can afford them. But it’s helpful to learn first what constitutes best practice.

First, the best firms send in some freelance “handlers” to help museum staffers remove the artwork from a wall, pedestal, or storeroom rack. On a flat surface, it is measured and then swaddled in acid-free “archival” packing materials (such as Tyvek, the synthetic sheeting also used in housing construction). Items set to travel by truck within the region are simply “soft-packed” and then braced inside sturdy cardboard boxes. But those going on an airplane, ship, or a truck journey lasting more than two hours require a professional carpenter (back at the firm’s workshop) to construct a wooden crate. This is customized inside with acid-free foam molds, braces, and buffers that will hold the swaddled object firmly in place during the bumpiest of rides.

Once sealed and tagged with a unique bar code for digital tracking purposes, the soft-pack or crate is loaded onto an air-ride, climate-controlled truck headed to its final destination, to an airline’s cargo-processing facility, or to a storage warehouse. The most expensive trucks are “exclusive use,” which means that only your item is on board; less expensive is “shared use,” in which other owners’ items are dropped off before or after yours. (The latter scenario means more, albeit rare, chances for your item to get damaged or even stolen.) At the final destination, the crates must be carried by experienced handlers, and the warehouse (if one is needed) must have suitable temperature, humidity, and security controls.

Of course, it is up to each collector to decide how many of these steps are necessary or affordable, but rest assured the smartest firms stand ready to discuss and customize your plans. Among the leaders in the U.S. are Gander & White, Crozier, Uovo, Lockson, Fine Art Shippers, Arrow Express, Renwick, ARTA, Aiston, and APFAS. Uline is America’s leading distributor of packaging and shipping materials for those who want to prepare the item themselves before the truck arrives to take it away. If your artwork is traveling abroad, your U.S. firm may split the journey with a partner over there; in Britain, for example, one of the leading shippers is Momart, and in France, LP Art.

In all matters logistical, better safe than sorry.

Information: aiston.com, apfas.com, arrowexpress.com, crozierfinearts.com, fineartshippers.com, ganderandwhite.com, locksoninc.com, renwickfas.com, shiparta.com, uline.com, uovo.art


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