What has dozens of steel quills and makes a  surprisingly lovely sound as you walk toward it?   It’s an elegant steel sculpture by Italian artist and furniture designer Harry Bertoia (1915-1978), and it was my distinct pleasure as the new crating manager to pack it this week. As a recovering sculptor myself, I take particular delight in Bertoia’s lively, indeed musical, use of industrial materials and their properties.

This piece, an assortment of slender steel rods welded to a rectangular plate in a somewhat pitched “V” formation, was certainly handsome enough to look at, but the real surprise revealed itself as I stepped closer and heard the rustle of the steel rods, making a sound like brushes on a cymbal; sizzle, sizzle, sizzle… 

From a crating perspective, the fragility of the piece posed certain challenges.  The sculpture had come to us with an extant injury (one of the rods had fallen loose from the plate), and I wanted to ensure that the packing put only minimal stress on the welds.  This meant no compression – nothing on top to flex the rods.  Capturing the base was therefore the way to go, so I devised a system of padded yokes which fit together like a 3D puzzle, grasping the piece from its sturdiest point.  To keep the rods from trembling in transit, I gently bundled them together and grasped with a sliding foam collar.

Packing of complex sculpture has always been one of my favorite aspects of this job.  It offers the art enthusiast in me a chance to commune with works of sculpture in a very tactile way, and allows me to show of my own chops as a craftsman.  The little rustling Bertoia was my favorite kind of project… pretty good day at the office!

Ian Patrick for FINE ART SHIPPING

Artwork from the collection of David K. Pressman

Sunday’s New York Times magazine takes a look at the world of art theft related blogs, spotlighting one such blogger in particular who features himself as a go-between of sorts in the exchange of (often shady) communications between the bad guys and the good guys. Both of which types, he asserts, read his blog to find out what the others are up to. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06FOB-medium-t.html

As the article notes, the recent brazen thefts from the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, where paintings were apparently wrenched from the wall during an ongoing security system outage, has had the blogosphere all atwitter for weeks. Not to mention the offices of art handling companies such as ourselves around the world.  A security system lapse, with no backup? No Rfid tags on paintings of that value? Not even a guy watching them?

Many hospitals today affix Rfid tags to newborns via leg bracelets or similar, and warn new parents not to stray from a designated area in the nursery zone lest alarms sound, exit doors close and lock, and gendarmes come running.  For babies, yes, but not for Matisse and Picasso? Incroyable!

I suppose there will always be ingenious theives who will find their way around whatever technologies are deployed against them, but we should at least give them a run for their money. Or I should say, for our money. Make it too easy and even the art theives turned bloggers may think again and go back into the trade.

Or maybe this is one of those tricky film plots where the good guys let the bad guys take the loot in order to trace the thieves back to their den of filched old masters, hidden in hollowed out loaves of,  but of course, french bread. Which are then recovered by Peter Sellers but left in the police van while he updates his blog, only to be, heartbreakingly, stolen from the unlocked van and and eaten by hungry college students incapable of discerning between aged canvas and charcuterie.

We wish the pros success in restoring these works to public view. And for all you art thieves who apparently spend a lot of time reading blogs like this, please know that you can drop off hot artworks at our dock any weekday by 5 PM. I’m not saying that we’re affiliated in any way with the Los Angeles Police Department Art Theft Detail, or have actually helped them solve any cases, but but let’s just say we know how to open a crate and look inside, if you catch my drift.

BetsyDorfman

Move over Wal-Mart
Fine Art Shipping began working to develop an affordable Rfid asset tracking system back in 2009. Having looked around and found nothing “off the shelf” that was within reach of our essentially small business, we decided to build our own, hiring a programmer and integrating this new software with existing hardware and available labeling. It’s no surprise that Rfids are making their way into art handling in 2010 — the technology is a natural fit for use where valuable commodities need to be accurately accounted for on a daily basis.

Seeing is believing
Like a barcode, the Rfid is a machine readable tag that, in concert with a database, identifies a specific object. Unlike a barcode, the Rfid reader does not require direct line of sight to the label or tag. The transponder tag emits a radio signal that is picked up by the reader and instantly identifies the item as present or “seen.” The beauty of this is that multiple items within a crate, bin, or on a shelf, or even in a truck, can be scanned at once, without moving them around to expose the tag. There are some limitations — metal may block the transmission, and there are limits to the “reach” of the signal –but for the majority of daily inventory tasks an art handler performs the system is ideal.

What, where, how
In a working warehouse knowing what is where and finding it quickly is critical. Every art handler has experienced the frustration of counting and recounting inventories, and unpacking packed crates to re-verify contents, not to mention the “all hands on deck” call to find an item temporarily mislaid. Eliminating this wasted time and effort directly feeds the bottom line. Items coming or going from storage can be scanned in using either a handheld device or put through a “portal” which reads the tags as the artworks are carried by. Because the tags are discrete, there is no confusing one Hockney or similar size with another, or transposing an inventory number when a an art handler is reading from paper labels. And no physical moving of objects to read paper labels on the far side or uncover a barcode. The system will also question any duplicates and, if an expected inventory is uploaded into the system ahead of the shipment’s arrival, will compare what is actually received to what was expected and display any extra or missing items.

Is that crate really empty?
Was any art left in the truck?
How many pieces are in that bin?
Did we deliver at stop 2 everything we picked up at stop 1, as requested?
Did we “pull” all 83 items accurately from the client’s storage?
What’s the package count for this shipment?

These are the types of everyday issues that the Rfid system addresses, and solves.

Where’s my stuff?
The other major benefit is the inventory management system it enables: we call ours SMI (storage maintenance inventory) for short. Using portable computers in the warehouse and in the field, each RFID tag is read and then related information identifying that item – artist, title, art dims, package dims, client name, job number, date in or out, warehouse location, and, yes even photos — is keyed into the database and saved. The database is accessible from any computer, which means our customer service reps and our warehouse crew can access inventories instantly to answer questions, locate items, or process delivery requests.

Show me the money
Billing is also streamlined, as SMI shows volume on hand in real time and does all the computing of cubic and square feet occupied by any inventory. It can further compute the storage charges for a given month, assuming a rate per CF or SF is entered for that client. The time saved by this application alone would likely pay for the system. Storage is the backbone of most art handling operations; having the billing done quickly and accurately is money in the bank.

Send in the clouds
Storing the SMI system data “in the clouds”, i.e. on a third party maintained internet-based bulk server, offers striking cost and efficiency benefits. First and foremost, we access our data in real time from virtually any computer anywhere, with security, backup solutions, and privacy issues all managed by the host. Information entered into a remote computer on a jobsite or secondary warehouse can be seen virtually in real time back at the office by a manager or client representative who can provide feedback as needed. And soon we’ll be offering clients the ability to log in under a private ID and view their storage or exhibition inventories online at their convenience.

And the future goes to….
Building and managing inventories using barcodes was a major advance over paper only labeling and manual input inventory systems. Rfid technology builds on that model and is a tested technology. Aside from use by major “big box” retailers, Rfids are already implanted in numerous products and medical devices. The basic technology is poised to take off with prices sure to drop for equipment and supplies as usage increases. Always a technology leader, FINE ART SHIPPING is pleased to offer the benefits of Rfid inventory management to our clients, not because it is the latest thing, but because it is the latest, and now affordable, best thing.

Betsy Dorfman

In case you missed it, Weekend Edition Sunday with Margo Adler showcased the upcoming sale of Michael Crichton artworks at Christie’s this week. As previous blogs have noted, Crichton was a lifelong collector of modern artworks, and we have had the privilege of moving and installing — and installing and reinstalling and reinstalling again — these works for the last decade and beyond.

Our art handler Owen Casey Rothstein is interviewed in the piece, and further details the fun and challenge of handling and relocating art for this client.

Here is a link to story – our ten seconds of fame!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126608315

Thanks to Brett Gorvy of Christie’s and to the Crichton family for their inclusive spirit which allowed us to be a part of this program and the larger undertaking of handling and preparation of these artworks for sale.

Betsy Dorfman

We encountered this old style pay-and-park machine opposite a gallery in, appropriately enough, Old Town Pasadena.

No tickets/receipts issued.

Just a uniformed man armed with a scanner who shows up once or twice a day in a car and opens the box to see if you’ve stuffed 5 x one dollar bills into the slot that matches the number on your parking bay.

The thingy on the length of braided picture wire is used for poking the folded dollar bills thru’ the slot.

Plus you have to fold each dollar bill three times along its length to make it narrow enough to pass through the slot entry.

Discover the difference indeed!  Hereafter to be knows as origami parking…

Michael Thomas

Betsy Dorfman

FINE ART SHIPPING is currently accepting applications for the position of Customer Service Representative. In addition to the normal palette of office and computer skills, the job requires the following more specialized abilities:

 ++ Estimate the packed dimensions of objects contained in email attachments that can’t be opened

++ Return urgent phone calls left by gallery assistants named Kristin who forget at the end of their message to leave their gallery name or phone number

++ Determine precise street addresses based on zip codes and the nearest Starbucks location

++ Overbook by mistake and then outperform on purpose, especially on Fridays

++ Accurately translate two dimensions into three

++ Determine the weights of large sculptures made in Brazil from exotic equatorial woods, including the pests contained therein

++ Increase the cubic volume capacity of our trucks at will, based on client demand

++ Create a spreadsheet for finding artist studios in unmarked buildings with no doorbells

++ Construct a “taxes and duties” computation game of chance

++ Explain our customers’ all risk fine arts insurance coverage in a tweet

++ Turn five-part carbonless paper bills of lading into chardonnay

If this sounds like your cup of tea please give me a call to schedule an appointment at my earliest convenience.

Betsy Dorfman

     Each year we send crew and managers out, sometimes at our own expense, sometimes charged to the client, to take a look at inventories to be moved and/or to assess various logistics issues at a given physical location. This “site visit” is required where very large collections are to be relocated or where the client, for whatever reason, is unable to provide an accurate or complete inventory. The site visit becomes necessary to produce the estimate, which then becomes the basis for accomplishing the required scope of work.

      There are two kinds of site visits: useful and useless. You should go on the useful ones, and avoid the useless ones. Trouble is, telling which is which in advance.

      Customer A is very insistent that someone come out and take a look at their “large inventory of major artworks” which they want to store or ship. Sounds juicy. Sure we will do a site visit, no charge, be right over.

      Customer B says we don’t need to come out in advance, they only have a couple of pieces, just send a truck and two guys on the day of the job, no problem, piece of cake, yawn.

      Which is the difficult job for which a site visit would have been hugely beneficial?

      Customer A turns out to have five or six perfectly ordinary oil on canvas paintings, not terribly large, a straightforward job to be deinstalled, wrapped, and removed by two art handlers in a relative trice.

      Customer B on the other hand has two very difficult sculptural works, delicate and top heavy, which really should have had frames built in advance of removal to provide proper support. Not to mention  some wacky “artist installed” logistics which have to be figured out and undone before the pieces can be removed from their respective perches. Oh, and the through the doorway clearances are very tight. Oh, and the house is on a hill with overhanding trees over the driveway so the sculptures have to be dollied down the driveway to a truck at the bottom.

      Where site visits aren’t done, peril often looms. Some examples from our experience:

      – the artist who has added to his creation in the studio without considering whether it will fit back out through the studio door. It won’t.

      — the “five or six” artworks which the caller described on the phone somehow morph into fifty or sixty upon our arrival.

      — the “perfectly friendly” dogs who nevertheless have to be shut away in advance to avoid our art handlers being bitten in the driveway (Two dog bites in 15 years…)

     – the gallerist who “forgets” to mention that the large sculpture or crate we are picking up for a third party is buried in the rear of the gallery’s storage area, where it has not been seen since 1957. The estimated one hour pickup/delivery turns into a multi-hour affair as our art handlers move everything else out of the way to access that piece.

      – the overhanging trees which make an accessible driveway into a “no truck” zone. We have paid reparations to more than one homeowner’s tree surgeon over the years. Often trees and landscaping have changed character since the owner moved in 15 years ago, so the fact that “the moving truck got in just fine” has past it’s fresh information expiry date. Better to go and measure.

     — and my personal favorite, the collector who had us pick up a painting from a gallery, only to find that the piece would not fit through any door in his residence. Whereupon he refused to pay anything, saying that as professionals we should be familiar with doorway sizes and we should have advised him not to buy the painting. This really happened.

      A successful site visit begins with the customer service person taking the phone call or answering the email asking the right questions. This means not accepting vagaries such as “large” or “heavy” or “small” or “easy access.” These are relative terms, and one person’s “pretty heavy but four guys could probably do it” is another person’s “get a crane.” You really need to know which job is which.

     For all the sleuthing in advance, there are always going to be useless site visits. Sometimes the visit was not strictly necessary from the scope of work point of view, but the manager bonds with the client and secures the job, turning useless into very useful indeed.

     When in doubt, as with most things in life, it is best to show up.

       Betsy Dorfman

 For Los Angeles drivers tired of having their visual space indentured to ads for lap bands, beer, Vegas hotels and grinning automobiles, here, finally, is a breath of fresh paint – actual art on billboards. Thanks to the MAK Center for Art and Architecture , 21 newly commissioned works by established artists will go up at locations around Los Angeles. More info, maps, and images of many of the works are on the exhibition website at http://www.howmanybillboards.org

Congratulations in particular to artists James Welling, Kerry Tribe, Daniel Joseph Martinez, and Alan Ruppersberg, whose works we have handled over the years for storage and/or for the Whitney Biennial. Nice to see them up in such a public format. At some 35,000 possible “visual impressions” a day, that’s a big audience whizzing by. Or crawling, depending. Each will be on display for only a month or two, so get your map and head on out. Probably best with a designated driver, leaving you free to crane and thrall and snapshot without causing undue risk to those actually trying to get somewhere.

Betsy Dorfman

 An art dealer friend recently disclosed that his trump card when closing deals with clients is to offer free shipping. More often than not, he said, this finalized the sale and allowed the buyer to depart feeling he or she had bargained well and struck a good deal. Further, this was true across the price spectrum of the art involved and no matter what the length of the negotiation process. It was free shipping or free local delivery & installation that sealed the bargain. This is not what a shipping company wants to hear. 

Compounding the horror, “free shipping” among online retailers has reached epidemic proportions and in fact has come to seem the norm. We feel shortchanged these days if we have to pay, or pay much, for shipping. It seems our birthright NOT to pay for shipping, not after we have just forked out for the thing/object/gadget itself. The giddy days of online sellers getting away with charging $8.99 to ship a $10 item seem lost in the quaint cyberpast.

So having promised the client the impossible, and feeling entitled to discounted shipping no matter what the commodity, the gallery or dealer then calls us seeking to send the artwork as cheaply as possible. We’ve been asked to put $30,000 artworks in cardboard boxes and ship them on UPS. Which, I hasten to add, we won’t do. It also explains why galleries often consign the job of arranging shipping to the lowest status employee who is newest on the job. Shipping is the last and least glamorous step in the dealer to customer transfer of title and custody. Basically, it’s a bore and a chore and, they would like us to think, it subtracts from rather than augments the bottom line. It’s the necessary evil mop up after the master has done his thing; hold your nose and dial the shipper.

But the truth is “free shipping” as anyone willing to reflect can probably deduce, is actually factored into the cost of the “thing” and so is not really free. We choose to perceive it as free because we want to feel like we are getting something for nothing, even when we know we aren’t. Art buyers, are you listening?

It would hardly be a sensible business model for art sellers to routinely “eat” shipping costs,. More likely they are factoring shipping into the cost and then, post sale, simply trying to maximize their profits by pressuring shippers to provide the most economical possible service. In this way everyone is happy except, well, me. I am stuck trying to persuade that new person at the gallery front desk that they really, really, really need to part with some actual money to protect their art in transit. That’s me, the bad guy spoiling everyone’s spoils.

Adding to the dilemma is the fact that the gallery typically wants the artwork off the premises and in the hands/on the wall of the customer as soon as possible before the glow of acquisition fades. So now we have a request for fast service, often a custom pickup at the gallery, plus expedited packing and shipping, plus custom delivery and installation all to be done on the cheap. Even after a couple of martinis, I can’t see a way to make that happen.

In a perfect world, everyone would recognize the service companies like ours provide and be willing to pay fair value for it. Santa, are you listening? In the meantime I continue my lonely battle against the tide of “free shipping” – with just a short time out this holiday season to transfer the items in my cart to the checkout window and collect my free 2-day shipping. Which they still call my “free 2 day shipping” even after charging my credit card $79 for yearly access to this privilege. Such a deal.

Betsy Dorfman

Like many small businesses, especially in these times, our margins are tight and it is difficult to make cash contributions to charities and other worthy cultural organizations. Happily, however, we are in a line of work – moving & storage — which enables us to provide in kind services to organizations at reduced rates or at no charge from time to time.

Since 2006, for example, FINE ART SHIPPING has supplied storage services at no cost for the Los Angeles Ballet. In addition to a prominent thank you in their programs, they have provided us with complimentary tickets, allowing many of our staff and their friends and families to experience the ballet and become fans. Talk about a “win-win”!

A bit closer to home, my daughter works for one of the Paul Newman charities, a camp called The Painted Turtle which serves children with serious diseases on a year round basis and at no cost to participating families. These are kids who otherwise would not be able to attend camp due to the nature of their illnesses. The Painted Turtle operates out of offices in Santa Monica, and maintains the camp in Lake Hughes CA., roughly 90 minutes northwest of Los Angeles. It is one of a network of affiliated camps around the world offering hope and fun to kids whose “out of camp” lives often consist of one medical challenge after another.

When one of our storage customers retired an array of costumes, wigs, hats, props & even a couple of fog machines from their inventory, we were able to donate these to The Painted Turtle and deliver them up to the camp in our truck at no charge. They were apparently used immediately in skits and sketches and were a great hit with kids and staff alike. Smiles all around! The website of The Painted Turtle shows a list of items the camp needs on a regular basis. Anyone wishing to make a donation can drop items off here at our facility near LAX airport and we will see that they get to the camp. (Please call first!)

On other occasions we are able to contribute to organizations by discounting costs on transport services.  Most recently we completed a shipment for Doctors Without Borders at a rate well below market value, essentially converting what would have been our normal markup into a contribution instead. This is a great way for small businesses to donate as it conserves cash but gives real value to the organization in question.

 Betsy Dorfman