Emergency Planning for Art Collections: Fire, Flood and Earthquake

Emergency planning for art collections: why it comes first

Emergency planning for art collections is the work done before anything goes wrong, so that the hardest decisions have already been made when an emergency arrives. In a fire, flood or earthquake there is little time and a great deal of stress, and the choices made in the first hours often determine what can be saved. A written plan turns those choices into a checklist.

The plan does not need to be elaborate. For most private collections it is a short document in four parts: what the collection contains and where, which works matter most, whom to call, and what to do. It should be kept somewhere that survives the emergency it plans for, which means copies held off site and in secure digital form, not only in a drawer in the house.

A plan should be reviewed whenever the collection, the house or the key contacts change, and walked through with the household from time to time. A plan nobody has read tends to fail at the moment it is needed.

Before: the plan, the priorities and the contacts

The foundation is a current inventory with images, locations and values, kept in the collection's records and exported regularly. Beside it sits a priority list: the works to protect or move first if there is time. Priorities usually balance value, significance, vulnerability and practicality, since a large work that needs several people to lift may not be movable in an evacuation, while a small, precious work on paper might be. A marked-up floor plan showing where each priority work hangs helps anyone, including household staff, find them quickly.

The plan only works if the right people know about it. Family members, household staff and anyone who looks after the property in the owner's absence should know where it is kept and what it asks of them. A contacts and documents sheet should cover at least the following.

Reducing risk by hazard

Some of the most effective measures are taken long before any emergency. For fire, that means working smoke and heat detection, keeping works away from fireplaces, candles and cooking areas, and asking a fire-safety specialist how any suppression system would affect the collection. Water used in firefighting can cause as much damage as the fire itself, which is another reason to know where priority works are and how to cover or move them.

Water risks include not only flooding but burst pipes, leaking roofs and failed appliances. Works should not hang beneath bathrooms or water tanks where it can be avoided, stored works should be kept off the floor, and in flood-prone areas important works are safer on upper floors. Knowing how to shut off the water supply quickly belongs in the plan.

In earthquake-prone regions, hanging hardware should stop works lifting off their hooks, using closed or security hooks and fixings into studs or masonry. Heavy objects are safer low down than high up, and objects on shelves and plinths can be restrained with mounts or suitable museum wax or putty, used on a conservator's advice for the specific surface. Acrylic glazing reduces the risk of broken glass cutting into a work.

During an emergency

Life safety comes first, without exception. No work of art justifies re-entering a burning, flooded or structurally damaged building, and the instructions of emergency services override any collection plan.

Where there is genuinely time and it is safe, the priority list guides what happens next. Works can be moved away from the threat, covered with plastic sheeting against water, or lifted off the floor. Electricity should not be switched on in flooded areas. Any work moved in haste should be noted, because a record of what went where is easy to lose in the moment and hard to reconstruct later.

Where a warning comes in advance, as it can with some floods and wildfires, the time can be used to move priority works upstairs, into interior rooms or off site to a prearranged facility, provided that doing so is safe and the shipper can reach the property. Evacuation orders take precedence over any of this.

After: salvage basics and the first calls

Once the building has been declared safe, the first task is documentation. Photograph the damage to works, rooms and contents before anything is moved, where that is possible without causing further harm, and notify the insurer promptly. The insurer may have its own requirements about who handles salvage and in what order.

The next call should be to a conservator. The American Institute for Conservation publishes emergency guidance for collections, and its resources can help owners find conservators experienced in disaster recovery. Significant works should not be dried, cleaned or repaired by the owner, because well-meant intervention after a disaster can cause more lasting damage than the event itself.

While waiting for professional help, a few general principles apply. Wet works should be moved, if it is safe to do so, to a cool, well-ventilated space out of direct sun, and never dried with heaters or hair dryers. Wet paper should not be separated or unrolled by force, and soot should not be wiped, since wiping drives it into surfaces. Mould can develop quickly in damp conditions, which is one reason conservators want to be involved early. Anything that has come away from a work, such as flakes of paint or pieces of frame, should be collected, bagged and labelled. A log of every salvage action and every work removed from the property, recording who took it and where, will be needed later by the insurer and the conservator.