Art in Transit: Packing, Shipping and Who Bears the Risk

The riskiest period in a work's life

A work hanging on a wall in a stable room is about as safe as it will ever be. A work being handled, crated, loaded, driven, flown, cleared and unpacked is exposed to impact, vibration, humidity swings, temperature change, pressure change and the largest variable of all, which is people.

Almost every collection that suffers a loss suffers it in transit or during installation. That is also the period most likely to be left to assumption.

Packing that matches the object

Standard freight packing is not fine-art packing. A museum-standard crate is built to the object: rigid outer construction, a sealed vapour barrier, cushioning tuned to the work's weight and fragility, and internal mounts that hold the work without bearing on vulnerable surfaces.

Works on paper, panel paintings, unvarnished surfaces, unstable media and anything with a projecting or fragile element each need different treatment. Glazed works should be taped or replaced with acrylic for transit, because broken glass against a painted surface is among the worst outcomes available.

Soft-wrapping is adequate for short local moves by a specialist team. It is not adequate for freight, and the cost difference is small against the value at stake.

Condition documentation, on both ends

Photograph the work before packing: front, reverse, all edges, frame, labels, signatures and any pre-existing area of concern, at resolution high enough to enlarge later. Note existing damage explicitly rather than leaving it to be inferred.

Repeat on arrival, before the delivery team leaves the building. A claim supported by dated before-and-after photographs is a straightforward claim. A claim asserting that damage was not there previously, without a record, is an argument.

Where the work is significant, having the reports prepared by a conservator rather than by the handling crew is a small cost against the alternative.

Title, risk and insurance are three questions

These get conflated constantly and they are separate. Title is who owns the work. Risk is who bears the loss if it is damaged. Insurance is who has arranged cover and for how much.

It is entirely possible to own a work, bear the risk, and have no cover — because each party assumed the other arranged it. The shipping instruction or sale agreement should name the shipper, state who arranges and pays for transit insurance, state the agreed value, and define the point at which risk transfers.

Agreed-value cover is materially better than market-value cover for art, because it removes the argument about what the work was worth from the moment of a claim.

The first hour after delivery

A crate that has travelled from a different climate should be left to acclimatise before opening — typically twenty-four hours in the room where it will be unpacked. Opening a cold crate in a warm room causes condensation on the work itself.

Unpack in a cleared space, with the right number of people for the object's weight and dimensions, and with somewhere prepared to put the work down. A surprising proportion of damage occurs in the last three metres, after everything expensive and careful has already gone right.