Here’s a quick update to our recent post about crating the longest urinal west of the Mississippi. Terence Koh’s sculpture arrived safe and sound, and now hangs serenely on the wall of the Mary Boone Gallery.

Credit is also due to the NYC art handler, Winchester Fine Arts, who received the crate and took care of the destination services.  Shipping an artwork of this size, weight and fragility successfully is always a team effort. 

*Photos by ArtObserved

And here is a link to more photos and review of the show. Not to mention the after party! http://artobserved.com/ao-on-site-koons-kelley-koh-curated-by-javier-peres-at-mary-boone-gallery-in-chelsea-saturday-march-4th-show-runs-through-may-16-2009/

Chris Barber

Just a follow-up to my review of Let the Right One In from a while back…

So the recent DVD release by Magnolia included faulty English subtitles. Unfortunately, those who missed the theatrical release would not notice that the dialogue was dumbed down and stripped of all character for the DVD. Gone was the dark humor and distinctive voices of each character. Some examples of the difference can be seen here.

But there’s a happy ending after all. In response to the blogic outcry, Magnolia films is now manufacturing DVDs with the original (theatrical) subtitles intact. To see which version you are holding, look on the back of the case. The new discs will actually say that the subtitles are the “theatrical” version.

Chris Barber

 Rule 1 : The condition of an artwork is never “good.” … Or you should at least approach an inspection in this frame of mind. Keep looking until you find the exceptions. An “exception” is just an instance of possible or apparent damage – any imperfection worth noting. 999 times out of 1000 they are there to be found.

 Sample condition report format:

Rule 2:  Report what you see. The most important quality of a condition report – and what allows it to function at all – is clarity. Photography, drawings and verbal description should be employed effectively to document any exceptions that you find. Identify the exception, locate it on the artwork and indicate its scope. Strive for short and precise notes, and limit your use of relative terms; such as bad, small, severe, etc. The standard industry jargon should help you sidestep generalities and lengthy descriptions to address specific conditions concisely.

There are numerous guides and sample condition reports only a web search away. You can reference several of them for guidance in formatting your own report, and gathering inspection tools such as special lighting and magnifying lenses. That being the case,  I’ll limit the following to a short glossary of exceptions.

These are the most common bogeymen of art objects:

Abrasion – a type of erosion often caused by the friction of rubbing or scraping the surface.

Accretion – the accumulation of foreign material on the surface, not always dirt.

Blanching – a milky stippling in a painted surface, often caused tiny faults puncturing the surface.

Bleeding – a post-production migration of pigment, often caused by exposure to water.

Bloom – a milky area where the clarity of the paint or varnish has been compromised, but more superficial damage than Blanching.

Blush – like Bloom, but in lacquer.

Check – a gap along the grain of a piece of wood, smaller than a Split.

Chip – a Dent that involves a broken piece of material.

Cleavage – a type of Crackle involving the separation of a material’s strata.

Cockling – a set of small parallel waves in a sheet of paper, in which the surface is not creased.

Corrosion – a chemical reaction between a surface and a foreign agent, accompanied by a slow process of Loss.

Crack – a linear or planar fault in a surface or a form that does not involve Loss.

Crackle – an area of perpendicular cracks that does not involve Cleavage.

Craquelure – a fine network of Crackle often caused by a material’s reaction to climate changes.

Crevice – a narrow but deep type of Crackle

Dent -  a concave distortion in the surface that does not include Loss.

Dig – a Dent that includes Loss or Displacement.

Discoloration – any change in color.

Dishing (aka Draw) - a distortion in the canvas of a painting caused by unequal tension around the stretcher.

Disjoin – a separation of elements or portions of an object, in which the separation can be complete or incomplete.

Dust- self-explanatory

Embrittlement- self-explanatory, a loss of plasticity in the object, often caused by exposure to heat.

Erosion- a loss of material, usually due to Abrasion or Embrittlement.

Fading – this type of Discoloration is the loss of saturation or value.

Fingerprint- self-explanatory; Grime in the form of a specific kind of Smear.

Foxing – the Corrosion of a paper element, often caused by mold or iron rusting within the pulp.

Gouge – a Dig where material has been lost in a scooping action.

Grime – dust sticking to the surface with a oily medium.

Lacuna (aka Loss) – a specific depression where a portion of the surface material is missing, such as a painting’s varnish.

Rift – a wide but shallow type of Crackle.

Run – a dried rivulet of a foreign liquid.

Smear – a specific instance of grime, such as a fingerprint or other contact with surface.

Spatter – a type of dried splash from a foreign liquid.

Split – a Check in wood grain that runs the entire length of that element.

Stain – this type of Discoloration usually involves both Fading and a darkening of the surface.

Stretcher Crease – a literal crease or line of fine cracks along an edge of a painting’s stretcher.

Tear- self-explanatory, usually applied to cloth or paper.

Chris Barber

The crating challenge presented here is to adequately protect this table within the crate so that the delicate spindle-mounted top element has little or no downward pressure on it. This is accomplished by securing the sturdier base element to the bottom of the crate. The feet are secured by custom ethafoam bumpers, and the cushioned straps hold the structure in place. The revolving tabletop is immobilized by more bumpers above and around the edge, but is in no way stressed by the pressure required to secure the heavier base. Although this is a simplified packing solution for a travel crate, no portion of the table comes in contact with anything other than tyvek-lined ethafoam.

Our crating department describes this as a “hybrid” crate:  it contains many of the elements of a full museum standard crate but is not painted or lacquered on the exterior and the contents are not further packed within an inner box. These are intentional choices and illustrate the extent to which each crating project is unique and both the crater and the customer can together elect elements from a “laundry list” of possible goodies.

The crate exterior shows the heavy battens and bolt closures typical of a museum standard crate. Bolt closures facilitate opening and closing repeatedly without structural damage. The crate is marked with orientation arrows, “fragile” notice and directions as to which end opens first. Statistics show that most damage occurs during unpacking of packages, so having this type of information clearly marked on crates is not an afterthought but an integral part of the risk management process.

Betsy Dorfman

Besides being the rumored title of a forthcoming Thomas Pynchon novel, inherent vice is a legal term of importance to shippers and insurers of fine art and antiques. The term refers to items which, by the very nature of their composition, are subject to degradation or deterioration over time and/or in handling. Most insurers and fine art policies specifically exclude coverage for loss due to  inherent vice, so it is important to understand what types of materials and fabrications can fall into this category. The disclaimer also applies to hidden defects not visible to the carrier but which are found to be the cause of damage or loss.  You don’t want to think you have coverage only to find that you have tumbled into the black hole of this clause.

Some examples of inherent vice we have run across include:

– sand paintings where the sand dislodges from the face or edges of the artworks

– artworks  with “glued on” elements that come loose during handling or transport

– artworks or antiques made of old wood which can crack or where existing cracks can extend or widen

– marble & limestone slabs or artworks which can shatter along internal fault lines

– wet paintings where the paint runs or pools

– weak soldering at joins in metal sculptures

– “hinged” works on paper which are not declared as such at the time of shipping, and so are subject to slippage within the frame

– top heavy fabrications where a heavy top crushes the level below due to insufficient support

– artworks incorporating liquid or other unstable elements which can expand or leak in shipping

– sharp folds in textiles or fabrics which suffer deterioration or breakdown at the folded edges

The exclusion also applies to damage arising from insufficient packing by the shipper where the customer has released the shipment to the carrier already packed. Here is some language from a case comment by a marine attorney:

The “inherent vice” exclusion is also used to describe a loss that, due to the manner in which the cargo is shipped, is regarded as inevitable. For example, fresh eggs shipped without any packing or protection are likely to sustain damage no matter how carefully they are handled. Chocolates shipped in an ordinary container in the summer are bound to melt. Damage that occurs in the course of ordinary handling and transportation of cargos, without the intervention of fortuity, is due to inherent vice and must be excluded from coverage. http://www.whitelawtwining.com/pdfs/555928_1.pdF

Your best bet is to give the carrier full information about the item to be shipped. If the carrier accepts the item, packs it, and selects the mode of transport then the exclusion may not apply. For example if the carrier packed those chocolates in a sturdy box and then shipped them via climate controlled truck, which then broke down so that the chocolate melted, the claim would likely be honored.  In essence the carrier accepted liability for the shipment due to full disclosure of the inherent nature of the product.

Another example: if the very fine mesh you used to support a heavy bead on your collage gives way in shipping — inherent vice. However if the carrier inspected the artwork and was made aware of this issue, you might prevail if it is shown that the carrier could have mitigated the damage by shipping the package flat, improving the packaging, or other available means.

So, for the best possible chance of recovery declare the precise nature of the item to your carrier or fine art shipper and allow them to inspect it fully. Discuss any unstable elements and have them recommend a suitable packing and shipping approach. Inherent vice may still get you, depending upon the situation, but you will have improved the odds of a happy ending for both yourself and your art shipping provider.

Betsy Dorfman

We get inquiries regularly from customers looking to gift their empty crates to us. With the implication that, of course, the crates are valuable and it is really the donor who is making the sacrifice. So the least we can do is pick them up for free, how about Tuesday? In the past, waaay in the past, we said yes. No longer.

Having accepted and stored an inventory of “used crates” some years back, we licked our chops and waited for the perfect fits to show up. The caller who would need a crate of a certain size, one we could pluck right out of our inventory, spruce up a bit and maybe re-fit the foam interior, and essentially sell again. Thus offering the customer a reduced rate and creating a happy transaction all around. Except that, it rarely happened. It so rarely happened, in fact, that we ceased for the most part storing empty crates.

Why? Well, first, it just wasn’t economical. Crates are built to house a particular artwork or set of artworks. To fit a smaller work into an existing crate, the interior has to be re-done, old materials stripped away, new foam added etc.– this is both labor intensive and involves the cost of new materials. Even removing old labeling and covering outdated stenciling takes considerable time. Often the “feet” of the crate were loose and had to be replaced, or other wood elements in the crate required reinforcement. In addition, the customer has to pay higher shipping rates for a larger crate, so that has to be considered in the trade off re pricing. Customers do not like to see wasted space within crates — and it is very clear to professionals when crates have been padded to excess.

The bottom line turned out to be that the expense in time and materials to refit an existing crate was substantial, and often building a new one was a better deal for the customer, especially when shipping costs were factored in. And on our side, the costs to pickup, handle, store, inventory and inspect crates to find possible matches was not worth the meagre return.

For many sculptures, installation pieces and other dimensional artworks, a retrofit crate was out of the question. With such artworks the interior of the crate is actually the expensive part, as custom supports have to be designed, fabricated, and secured in the crate to hold all elements of the work in place. To start with an existing crate would be a complication to be overcome, not a short cut.

Finally there can be quality issues with a used crate, particularly one that has been stored for a long time or that has been subject to repeated shipping adventures. Screws can work loose, wood dry out, glued elements come unglued, and the stresses of shipping can work loose formerly tight joints, gaskets, and seams.  Some of the crates donated to us way back when were, upon inspection, trash. Some looked new, but upon handling proved rickety and unlikely to survive further freight journeys without substantial refurbishing. Some had spiders and worse, having been stored out of doors — not recommended.

So our rule has become: empty crates? Thanks but, no thanks. There are exceptions to every rule, and here and there we are able to re-use a recently arrived crate if the stars are in proper alignment. If a really amazing crate comes our way we might keep and admire it for awhile, and have our craters learn from it’s design, but sooner or later out it goes. The only empty crates we store now are those held in storage accounts for our customers. These are typically high end crates built for specific artworks that clients have in their collections, or crates being held for artworks temporarily in town on exhibition. Normally only the most expensive museum quality crates and cases are stored long term; it makes economic sense to store these rather than build new ones. In that case, crates are carefully inspected prior to re-use, and any elements that have degraded are replaced, so they are in “as new” condition when released into the arms of the shipping gods.

 Betsy Dorfman

We get calls and emails regularly from customers looking for rates to ship artworks of certain sizes from point A (typically their gallery or studio location) to several sample point B’s. Their expectation is that the cost will vary relative to volume and distance shipped, yes? Well, maybe.

The art shipping business is, fundamentally, the “what if” business. Cost depends upon a great many variables, which is why we will ask you (sorry) a raft of questions before responding with an estimate. We are also in the disclaimer business, but will save that for a later blog.

The first and most important variable is: what are we shipping? For artworks of low or modest value which can be rolled and secured in sturdy tubes, or boxed or crated and sent via package service such as UPS or Federal Express, yes, it is possible to create what is essentially a “tariff” based on distance shipped.  The artworks needless to say have to be durable enough to survive freight handling unharmed.  This is not recommended for fragile, hinged or delicate works where damage could ensue if the packages are turned topsy turvy. They will be turned topsy turvy, and no number of “this way up” arrows and markings is going to change that.

For more valuable artworks, larger scale artworks, and for delicate works the answer is, well, sometimes. Most of the United States is served by a network of art shuttles; these are insurable carriers whose trucks and crew are trained and qualified to handle fine art. Artworks are hand carried, tied into the vehicle, and orientation markings are observed. In many cases the trucks are climate controlled as well. They typically run on a predetermined route and schedule with a couple of days spent in each city or region picking up and dropping off. Pricing is largely determined by volume and distance so you could, theoretically, develop a model for a “typical” box or crate to travel to multiple cities, for example. But here the words “schedule” and “city” are key.

If the destination is rural, or the artwork has to meet a deadline which does not conform to the shuttle schedule, then the cost goes off the tariff and into the “custom” bin. And the relationship of distance to cost? Can be totally undone. For example, on our Los Angeles to San Francisco shuttle we can ship a large 50 x 4 x 60″ softpacked painting from city center to city center for under $ 200. That’s a trip of about 380 miles, 6 -7 hours in a truck depending upon stops. But to deliver that same artwork to Palm Springs, roughly 110 miles, the rate is going to be $300 at least, and higher if a date and time specific service is requested. And to deliver that same painting from Los Angeles up the coast to what we call “far Malibu”, in traffic, could run the same $300 or higher, based on hourly rates. Why? The shuttle is a consolidated service and pools multiple orders to a common destination. The Palm Springs and Malibu deliveries are custom services or, if consolidated, carry only one or two orders at a time, so the cost to each customer is greater. And the same math holds true for regions around other major cities as well.

Furthermore, if our San Francisco shuttle goes “off route”, i.e. makes a stop far off one of the major highways, then the cost increases as well, sometimes considerably. It can cost hundreds of dollars extra to pick up from our artist customers in what we affectionately call the “troll and redwood” reaches of Northern California; unfortunately bucolic often equals big ticket.

So for predictability of cost and most economical rates, ship major city to major city, have a flexible schedule, and do your own packing where feasible. For the rest, contact a fine art shipping company for a custom quote.

Betsy Dorfman

You may have seen recent news coverage of yacht owners abandoning their boats in these recessionary times, causing a mess for marinas and law enforcement officers who have to deal with the cost to dispose of these in an environmentally friendly way.

Well, less heralded, it’s happening to us here in our fine art storage facility. Owners of high end paintings and sculptures are abandoning these possessions in droves, rather than continue to pay storage fees.

As one collector put it in a recent phone call:

“To continue to pay $125 a month when the artwork is only worth $50,000 – well, you do the math, it just isn’t a good investment anymore. Do whatever you want with the thing, to me at this point it’s just a heartbreak on canvas. And don’t call me anymore!”

Reached for comment, marina owner Fred “Tug” Cruiser, was sympathetic:

“I hear you, believe me. At least yours don’t leak oil. Oh, they do? Never thought of that. Here we have the owners, some of them, deliberately scuttling the boats themselves. Insurance company raises them up to find neat holes drilled in the side etcetera. My advice,  if you’re going to scuttle one of those pictures or statues, first, don’t do it in my marina and, second, don’t make nice little round holes! Get your dog to chew it or something. Have a little imagination for Christ’s sake. Geez, there goes a guy with a drill, sorry, gotta go.”

As you can imagine, there are laws on the books governing the proper disposal of artworks. You can’t just toss them in the dumpster or leave them on the shoulder of the 405 freeway on a dark night, however tempting. And you can’t sell them because, as with yachts, the market is already glutted with people trying to sell better paintings for pennies on the palette and anyway, as a storage facility, you don’t have access to the provenance. Without the provenance, even preschools won’t take them for the nap room. We tried.

As it is today, we can barely get in the front door due to a pile up of Picassos and Pollocks. In the back,  orphaned Boteros have staged a rebellion, shed their crates, and are dancing naked in the aisles. It isn’t pretty.

That’s the situation here on April 1^st, hoping for better days ahead.

Betsy Dorfman