Some customers, including industry insiders, mistakenly believe that booking a service or shipment with a fine art provider means, by default, that the shipment or goods being handled are automatically insured. Or, if not insured per se, that the provider nonetheless must have liability in case of damage, especially damage caused in the course of their care and custody. Not the case. In fact if it were the case, art handlers could not function; having open ended liability for potentially millions of dollars of stored and in-transit property would be an untenable business proposition day to day. We have enough gray hair as it is.

So the reality is that fine art handlers necessarily have limited liability, typically capped at 60 cents per pound per article, for uninsured items. That is barely salvage value and completely useless in the realm of fine art coverage, where values range from hundreds into the millions of dollars. Beyond that point, unless a value is declared and a premium paid, there is no coverage. Zero. No matter what the circumstances of the loss. Even if we knock it off a shelf and run a forklift over it. We really try not to do that, by the way.

Every customer who calls to book a service or receive an estimate is asked if they wish to take or decline the insurance we provide, and every transaction processed – estimate, bill of lading, invoice – shows the status of the account or shipment as insured for a specified value or insurance declined. If you are working with a carrier or fine art shipper and there is no notice of insurance status on the document, get that fixed. If there is no value declared and shown in writing then chances are 99.9% that you are not insured with that provider.

Despite this clarity, some customers remain confused or subject to wishful thinking, typically after a loss has occurred. To banish this “gray area” insurance underwriters, including ours, have introduced an additional step into the process: customers declining insurance must sign and return an OPT OUT form, a sample of which is below.

The form is kept on file and applies to all transactions for that customer or account, unless or until rescinded in writing. In some cases a museum, collector or gallery will have their own all risk policy in place, and sending us proof of such coverage will serve the same purpose as the OPT OUT form.

Asking our customers to return this form has been instructive. It has turned up some who thought they were insured, despite receiving in some cases years of notices to the contrary, and others who realized their own independent coverage had lapsed and/or that they need to update their appraised values and coverage. Many clients had questions, which served to show that the waters were murky indeed. A few interpreted this to be an entirely new policy limiting our liability and were concerned that we were now cutting them off from some delectable free coverage they had enjoyed in the past– not the case. As I hastened to explain. And a few others thought the document somehow related to their own independent insurance policies, which it does not.

And so, unaccustomed as I am to praising insurance companies, my chapeau is off to the folks at Lloyd’s of London and our agent at Willis Fine Art & Specie for adding this document into the mix. Nobody likes more paperwork, but where irreplaceable art and artifacts are concerned the fewer twilight zones the better.

Betsy Dorfman

Sample notice:

NOTICE OF OPT OUT of insurance offered

This will confirm that I/We have been offered purchase of “Customers’ All Risk Fine Art Insurance” by Fine Art Shipping/Bilton Arts Inc. and that I/We OPT OUT and decline to accept this coverage.

By opting out and signing below I understand that Fine Art Shipping/Bilton Arts Inc. has limited liability for any loss or damage, as specified in their documents and waybills, as do their agents and affiliated providers.

( ) I/We decline to accept coverage as noted above and this relates to ALL SERVICES performed by Fine Art Shipping/Bilton Arts Inc. I/We further understand that this OPT OUT declination can only be rescinded by myself or an authorized representative and requires a statement of acceptance in writing from Fine Art Shipping/Bilton Arts Inc. to take effect.<

COMPANY or INDIVIDUAL NAME: _____________________

ADDRESS__________________________________________________________

SIGNATURE of individual or COMPANY authorized representative __________________________

DATE ______//_______//______

NOTE: Failure to return this document to Fine Art Shipping/Bilton Arts prior to performing the requested service will constitute acceptance of “Customers’ All Risk Insurance” together with any related fees and expenses for same.<

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

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