Recent news reports have detailed the upcoming sale of artworks from the Michael Crichton collection, currently on display at Christie’s in London. The paintings to be sold include a seminal work from the Jasper Johns “Flag” series, as well as works by Picasso, Lichtenstein and Rauschenberg . Old friends all.

FINE ART SHIPPING has moved, installed, shipped and stored many of these works over the past decade-plus for the Crichton family. Packing and crating these recent few to send off for display in London was an exercise in nostalgia to be sure. We have softpacked the Johns for Mr. Crichton to carry on an airplane, installed it at residences in New York and Los Angeles, and each time we handled it was a thrill. The office emptied out, art handlers mysteriously appeared as the crate was about to be opened — there are artworks which claim their own audiences, and this is one.

On September 11, 2001 our Los Angeles based crew was packing art at the Crichton residence in upstate New York, some 90 miles from ground zero. We were immediately invited to stay in the home for several days, allowing us to give our hotel rooms to our NY based crew, who were unable in those early days and hours to return to the city. So this goes beyond a business relationship, to what has been a partnership of care and concern for this art over many years and circumstances.
Following the current exhibition at Christie’s the artworks go on sale in New York in May. To the new owners we can only say: may the vibes, all good, be with you.

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

Over the years we have had a couple of instances where artworks or valuable objects were mistakenly left in crates or packages and almost, or actually, discarded. I hasten to say these were not containers that we had packed, but items received by us packed by other customers or shippers. In one case a work on paper was sandwiched by the sender between cardboard sheets with no labeling on that package whatsoever. Inside and resting against the back of the crate it was readily mistaken for…well, a piece of cardboard. And recently when preparing to discard boxes returned from a jobsite we found a number of expensive glassware items and a silver tray which the customer’s staff overlooked when unpacking. Oops.

Whether hiring a professional company or doing it yourself, all containers with multiple contents should be accompanied by a packing list or pack list. Sometimes this is pouched on the outside of the container, but for maximum safety we like to put a copy inside the package. With crates we often glue them inside the top. With a pack list, the person unpacking knows exactly what to look for within the box. They can check off pieces as they unpack and make sure that all items are accounted for before discarding the package.

In addition, all packages within a box or crate should carry a clear label to distinguish between packed items and incidental packing materials. We often write “art inside!!” on portfolios as well as label them with the artist and title of the contents. A few seconds with a red marker can literally save a small or thinly wrapped artwork from accidental destruction or loss. Your packages should not be mysterious.

And then there are the “non art” components which often accompany shipments. Artists are notorious for this. They will send us a lovely crate with carefully packed and labeled art within, but fail to alert us to look for that little bag of screws, or that wood cleat they tucked up in the northwest corner which they hope we didn’t think was part of the crate, or the little packet of folded mending material that is hugely important to the installation… Once again common sense dictates that anything which needs to be found needs to be findable. And all items including incidentals need to appear on pack lists. Otherwise we may not recognize what is integral and what is not. The folded material in one artist’s crate might be something leftover that they used to fill negative space, or it might be critical to the artwork. We should not have to guess.

At our warehouses, we have a standard rule that all boxes are broken down fully and all accompanying “trash” paper, bubble wrap, or plastic etc. is searched again to make sure no objects are commingled in the packing. With crates, interior foam and loose spacing or lining materials are fully removed so that the crate is inspected right down to the wood before it is marked as empty. Every art handler has a story of the “empty” crate that wasn’t. Packing lists may not entirely solve this problem, but they help. After all the most basic goal of shipping is to have the receiver, not the dumpster, receive what the shipper shipped.

 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

One of the distinct joys of our business is the opportunity to see amazing cultural and historical artifacts and objects close up. With no plexi case or velvet rope intervening. Sometimes, we get to hold history in our hands, as we did with the air rifle that was authenticated to the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Or the World War II D-Day planning map, personal property of General Omar Bradley, complete with his hand drawn renderings and notations. And the inventory of signed first editions by Jules Verne and H.G. Wells.

Most recently FINE ART SHIPPING was privileged to crate an exhibition of Miles Davis memorabilia for the Musee de la Musique/ Cite de la Musique in Paris. The show, entitled “We Want Miles!” opens Oct 16^th,  in case you are fortunate enough to be in the vicinity. Among the items we packed for the exhibition were stage costumes, sheet music, original paintings by Miles, and, most notably, three of his trumpets. Of these the “trumpet rouge” or red trumpet, was the instant show stopper. The photos shown here give just an idea of the beauty and craftsmanship of this instrument, which, beyond its value and history, is itself a work of art.

Although “red trumpet” arrived to us in its case, the lender generously allowed us to hold the instrument and manipulate the keys to feel the “action.” Wearing gloves, needless to say. For those of us who have played garden variety instruments and have some basis of comparison, we soon realized we had none, not to a custom instrument of this caliber. Crafted by Martin to Miles’ personal specifications, including the silky yet precise play of those keys, the “cool” was transporting. We Want Miles!

We’re hoping Miles would have dug the crate that we made for his trumpets; they were shipped in their original cases, each case slipped into a custom drop front foam core box within the crate. Hopefully, doing our little bit; honoring craft with craft. And, of course, we painted the crate RED!

Betsy Dorfman

 We field repeated requests to ship one artwork from here to there, sometimes along well traveled routes such as Los Angeles to New York and/or return. Often this is a gallery anticipating or having just made a sale, with a single buyer wanting the piece, as they all do, yesterday.

 So we send off an estimate and very often the result is: nothing. We understand: it is expensive to ship a single artwork as many art shuttles, including ourselves, have a minimum charge.

 If you understand the power of the minimum, however, you can use it to your advantage. On our Los Angeles to San Francisco shuttle, for example, you can ship two or even three modest sizes works for the same price as shipping one. Up to ten cubic feet, all passengers ride for one price, rather like a NYC taxi. (And we don’t stop for women with strollers, either…)

 For many of the high value and trade show divisions of van lines, a 500 pound minimum applies. In that instance you could ship as many as ten artworks of moderate size in one crate and still stay within the minimum weight by volume.

 Hence our advice to artists and galleries: ask thy neighbor! Tweet, email, phone or stroll at lunchtime to the gallery down the street and ask if they might have anything going where you need to go. A big element here, however, is flexibility in timing. The more leeway you have in whatever schedule you have promised your buyer the more time there is to “partner” with another sender.

 Pooling resources can save serious money and is win/win for us shippers, too. We get to make two customers happy who hopefully will return next time around.

Betsy Dorfman

Today we crated an antique object so dripping with inherent vice that I wanted to just give it a good shake and ship whatever remained in hand. It was a lacy assemblage of stressed wood with flaking paint and gold leaf, forming some kind of elaborate staff.

I thought that only wizards had these, and I must say; any wizard would be proud to lean ponderously on such a grand walking stick. I was disappointed to be informed that it was not, in all likelihood, the former property of any such character; not the least because it debunked my theory that it was the gradual (and sad) fading of magic that was causing the many unsecured parts to slowly lose their unlikely relative positions and settle into a more natural relationship with gravity.

I do admire a clever bit of woodworking, and in all fairness, it isn’t the staff’s fault that it was never meant to lie prone like a saucy odalisque; much less freighted that way. But long story short, this thing was screaming to be shipped upright – not only for the fragility of its overall construction and distribution of weight, but also for the specific joins used in assembling some of the wooden nuggets.

That some of the said nuggets were quite loose is an understatement. They were ready to leap away from the piece like rats riding the explosion of a sinking ship’s boiler room. But for a variety of reasons, shipping upright was no more an option than not shipping it at all; the latter being a suggestion I slipped anonymously under the general manager’s door this morning before tip-toeing away.

When that plan didn’t work, I was forced to ship the piece in a horizontal attitude. The point of all this is that sometimes you have to just do what you can to make sure the thing is as safe as possible within the tight budget. So here’s what we did:

A cavity pack was pointless, as we would have had to float so many little parts and still catch the more solid areas at all of the correct angels in a Swiss cheese version of (a negative image of) the piece. So vertical guillotines it would be. The staff’s lateral, vertical and axial movement was eliminated by guillotines along the shaft.

One more guillotine on the crown’s widest point took much of the crown’s weight, and also eliminated any possibility of spinning in place thanks to the hexagonal tier.

Tall, tapered bumpers reached up from below to take the weight of each successive tier in the crown.

Belts and straps of Tyvek held the loosest pieces in place while holding the tiers down against their bumpers.

Finally, a safety bumper of softer foam was placed ½” away from the tip of the staff, just in case several other axial stoppers failed.

I still wouldn’t drop this crate from the top of a tall thing, but I can strap it to  a unicorn and wave goodbye to it with confidence.

-Chris

As crating manager, I sometimes get a self-satisfied chortle out of packages sent to me from various sources, private and professional. With the Tour de France 2009 in mind, this one was more amusing than most. And also more annoying.

The front wheel of my bicycle was recently crushed in a collision with a car on my way to work. It being a lightweight road bike c. 1986, I figured I’d maintain the vintage and save money in the same stroke by getting another set of French mid-80s wheels. I love eBay.

I guess it’s good that Mavic wheels are known to be pretty much bomb-proof, because the package in which they arrived was barely fit for a local delivery. The front wheel (the one I need right away) has damaged spokes, but they can be replaced. I hope that’s the only reason why the rim looks almost as bad as the one that got run over.

The thing is, these wheels are really strong; so what went wrong here? Let’s take a look.

1. Though made for shipping wheels, the box was recycled from an earlier use. There’s a different brand printed on the outside, and what passed for interior packing had clearly lost its shape prior to this use.

2. Even if new, this type of packaging is designed to be supported by other significant factors; like bundling them in large numbers on a shipping pallet. It was clearly not designed for overseas travel on its own.

3. Due in part to the used packaging, the three parts being shipped were not adequately secured inside the box. A small bag holding the steel skewers was tossed in loose to jump around inside the box, and the hub of each wheel was jammed into the spokes of the other.

As a result, the box got crushed. The cogs of the rear wheel arrived poking a 5″ diameter hole through the box, and three spokes had somehow snapped off of the front rim.

As a bonus, the shipper decided to use stamps to send the box to California. From France. I hate eBay.

So how would I have packed this, assuming that a crate was not an option?

…Let me stress that the following solution is not something that we would do here at Fine Art Shipping. Unless the client was renting a dedicated shipping container to be loaded by us, we would insist on a full wood crate for international shipping. But let’s just say that I wanted to ship the wheels back on my own dime, while trying to mitigate further damage. Due to their odd size, I would start with a custom box, built from a couple sheets of double-wall cardboard.

1. I would cut two panels of 3/8″ plywood to reinforce the interiors of the two large walls of the box.

2. Then I would surround the wheels with 2″ bumpers of Ethafoam. I would stack another 1″ of foam on these bumpers and slot them for the wheel rims. This would keep the wheels separated and secure in their cushioning.

3. Finally I would bag and secure the third part – the skewers (wheel axles) – well away from the wheels. They could be embedded in the bottom foam bumper, or the bag could be screwed to the plywood sides.

C‘est la vie.

Hey, lookit these pretty stamps.

-Chris

The most recent and local controversy over museums de-accessioning artworks involves a decision by the Orange County Museum of Art to sell multiple artworks to a private collector. Having learned of this transaction only after the fact, the Laguna Art Museum lodged a protest, upset that they were not offered an opportunity to acquire the artworks in advance of the offer to a private citizen.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/06/ocma-sells-paintings-to-private-collector-prompting-criticism.html

Without knowing the details, and having a working relationship with both museums, we have no interest in taking sides, except to say that hopefully the new owner of these artworks will see fit to lend them early and often. As is obvious the basic difference between works held so-called publicly, in museums, and those held privately, does often come down to a matter of access. But there are museums who hold art off public view and, likewise, some private lenders whose artworks are out on loan more often than not. Some lenders loan freely, some sparingly, and some grudgingly. In 25 plus years of dealing with lenders and borrowing institutions we have pretty much seen it all. We thought you might enjoy a peek into this process which is not as cut and dried as you might suppose.

In some cases purchasers of high end artworks agree to loan the work to bona fide requestors as a part of the acquisition process. In other cases no guidelines apply and it is simply up to the borrowing institution to contact owners of prospective works and convince them to participate. Such convincing can be a simple phone call or a long process involving delicate negotiations over many weeks or months.  Luckily, that’s not our turf.  If these efforts are successful a loan agreement is drafted which sets forth various stipulations such as term of the loan, conditions of transport, insurance, etc.  We generally come into the picture once the loan agreements are in place; we receive an inventory of artworks and a corresponding list of lenders. It is our responsibility to contact the lenders to arrange packing and transport to the exhibition venue. On paper, this is all very organized. In real life, not so much.

Hi, this is FINE ART SHIPPING and we’d like to arrange a date this week to pickup the Prestigious Artwork which you are kindly lending to the Prestigious Museum Exhibition next month.  Hello ?  Hello?

Some lenders, having agreed to the transaction some time ago, change their mind or, let’s say, their enthusiasm diminishes once the reality of giving up the artwork becomes apparent through our phone call. We leave messages, they don’t call back. Or they do call back, and claim the loan agreement is faulty in some way. More delay. Or, the artwork it turns out has been taken to their ranch in Montana, and the caretaker can only be reached there on alternate Thursdays by meeting him in town at the feed store. Where there’s a lack of will there’s no way.

Other lenders could not be more helpful, but experience separation anxiety once our art handlers actually arrive to collect the piece. In one case, a lender actually cried, seeing the bare space left on the wall where her favorite “child” had lately hung. We moved another favorite over from an adjoining room to compensate, calming her down and making the room livable again. At the other extreme, we’ve shown up only to be waved into the living room with an offhanded “take whatever it was you came for…” as the housekeeper or spouse went on with more pressing business.

I once had the personal trainer of a lender who was out of town sit me down at a table and go over every comma in the loan agreement, occasioning many calls back and forth to the museum representative, before “Hans” would release the piece. We were supposed to wrap the painting, but I was so fearful Hans the Inquisitor would change his mind that I simply picked it up “naked” and carried it out through the lobby. The (by now new) security officer on the desk apparently had no problem with a person he had never seen before carrying a valuable painting off into the sunset.

Then there are the occasional lenders who try to get our crews to do extra work, tacitly or even not so subtly expecting that such activity will be billed to the borrower or organizer of the exhibition. Take the artwork off the wall? Sure. Put another painting quickly in it’s place? Reasonable, if essentially a switch of like sizes. Bring the two heavy framed antique mirrors and the chandelier in from the garage and install them “so the room will look nice again”?  I don’t think so. Upon return from exhibition, some lenders see this as a chance to re-position all the art in a room or to have us unpack and install a few new paintings that have arrived in the meantime. Generally this works out, and lenders are able to separate (and be willing to pay for) services beyond what is included in their agreement with the borrowing institution. Sometimes the institution agrees to pay even for quite outlandish “extras” based on the deep pocket status of the benefactor in question. Basically, “do whatever they want and try to get the hell out of there” is the instruction, delivered with a sigh. Every art handler has stories of moving the refrigerator out to the pool house, or switching dressers in upstairs bedrooms, all in the normal course of putting a 20 x 20″ framed artwork back on the wall in the den. Lenders have to be made happy, on this the art world depends.

Betsy Dorfman

We get requests on a regular basis to send boxed or otherwise “softpacked” artworks via package services such as UPS or Fed Ex, or by freight, to various destinations.

Our answer in 99% of the cases is, no. We don’t ship softpacked art by freight service, period. Or, (with apologies to O.J.) if it’s freight it needs a crate! For starters, the package services don’t differ from freight in terms of handling; they are freight.

Freight handling is rough and tumble, or can be. We get crates in regularly that have footprints on them from being “stood” on, sometimes a whole line of footprints showing the crate was walked on most likely to reach other objects in a truck. If that container had been a softpack or box — curtains.

Most freight shipments are handled multiple times enroute, are fork lifted to and fro, and may get conveyor belted as well. The extra foam padding used within a properly built crate gives far better “shock” protection than a standard softpack. If you have ever seen the result of a cowboy driven forklift tine striking a cardboard box, it isn’t pretty. With a severe blow even a crate might be breached, but the chances are better for a positive outcome.

In addition, freight shipments are generally not “tied in” within the transport vehicle or aircraft. Which means they can shift, turn over, or other items can lean against them or fall on them. Thus, the more rigid the container the better. 

Moreover, crates can be constructed using various tricks of the trade along the top or bottom which make them suitable to ride only one way i.e. in a given orientation as to LWH. While this is not foolproof, and we never rely on freight carriers to ship art that might be damaged if turned from the vertical, it is more possible to secure the orientation of larger crates than boxes or cartons. Any small box or package shipped via freight is guaranteed to be turned this way and that, no matter what orientation marks appear on the exterior.

There are exceptions to the  freight=crate rule. Several companies sell prebuilt shipping containers or “strong boxes” composed of heavy corrugated cardboard, seriously foam lined, and sometimes incorporating additional puncture proof linings. These offer protection approaching that of a plywood crate, but are more crushable, still. And there is the occasional very sturdy artwork that can survive double boxing in a foam lined box.

Your local pickup guy may hand carry your box out to his truck, and may lovingly place it in the proper orientation, but it’s not going to be handled that way for the rest of the journey, chances are. We see packages every day which are handed to us upside down, or where “fragile” markings are ignored with parcels tossed casually into trucks despite cautionary labeling. A crate offers superior protection outside and in and gives what can be an art saving margin for error. 

If you stick with our rule of thumb you have a far better chance of your shipment arriving in good condition. 

Betsy Dorfman