FINE ART SHIPPING was recently privileged to provide packing and crating services for the ART in Embassies program, which exhibits works of American artists in the public rooms of embassy residences around the world. Yes, Virginia, a government program that actually and directly supports the arts, and has done so since its inception in 1964. Way to go, State Department!

Artworks are loaned by artists, corporations, museums and private collectors, and the AEIP pays the costs of packing and shipping to the destination city. Further information on the program is available at : http://aiep.state.gov/index.cfm

The site also supplies guidelines for artists interested in submitting art to their Registry. For students and other art hungry travelers, the website contains a listing of what works are currently on exhibit in which cities, together with artist statements and details of the pieces on view. This is a great way to support American artists and to beat the lines and entrance fees encountered at so many better known exhibition venues.

Betsy Dorfman

Painted crates enjoy a couple of benefits besides a modest aesthetic bump. Any given shipment of them is instantly recognizable in large warehouses of unrelated crates and pallets. Larger museums tend to have their own proprietary color, and for the purposes of this you would have to ask your friendly neighborhood registrar. But I imagine that one benefit is revealing at a glance which stored crates were commissioned by the museum and which may belong to some one else. Likewise when the crates travel in large exhibitions.

Last but not least, there is a technical element. The crates shown here are covered with a coat of primer, three coats of paint and two coats of clear lacquer. This adds up to a bit of a moisture barrier. Should the crates fall into the ocean, the MDO walls will do most of the work in keeping the contents dry for a spell, but the paint helps slow down serious damage to the solid pine battens and subsequent seepage at the corners. In less catastrophic conditions however – say, a heavy rain – the water won’t get past the paint and Neoprene lid gasket.

Here is a snapshot of the same crates recently spotted in the wild, along with one from another company in the same shipment. Labels and documentation accompany all such shipments, but there is never any question where each of these crates will eventually be returned.

-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

Well known for his plays, stories and films,Alan Bennett is also, who  knew, an astute observer of art and member of the board of the National Gallery. “Untold Stories” is a series of short pieces written when Mr. Bennett was under a, thankfully incorrect, death sentence from cancer in 1997. His musings on the state of the British commonwealth and psyche are on target and rendered in vibrant and piquant style. His “take” on many of the world’s museums includes commentary on the ambiance and room tone of the spaces — how they make you feel and whether they are inviting spaces in which to encounter art . Benches or no benches? Lighting up to snuff? His opinions of the artworks, too, are fresh and entertaining and he has no trouble casting aside received wisdom when “masterpieces” don’t make the cut. You definitely want to go museum hopping with this gentleman.  

Skip ahead to the diary entries if you are mainly interested in his art critiques and observations;   but you will be missing much. Tales of his upbringing among the shop-keep aunties and conventions of ex-urban Leeds are both poignant and hilarious by turns.

Here is a link to the 2005 review by the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2005/oct/09/biography.features1

Betsy Dorfman

We will be updating a couple of times a week as noteworthy projects, articles, or art-related info comes our way. For those unfamiliar with our company, Fine Art Shipping is a comprehensive provider of art handling and shipping services to the professional community and to the general public. This is our 26th year in business but our very first blog! We envision this as a place where “civilians” as well as art nerds can come to see what we are up to in the very custom, and sometimes wacky, and always busy, world of art shipping.

We will provide information on art handling techniques and materials as well as links to artists, galleries, museums, exhibitions, and art events that cross our radar. We welcome feedback, suggestions for topics, and related links, always!

The other pages on this blogsite will tell you about our famous Los Angeles to San Francisco shuttle (see SHUTTLE) and give a rundown of our key players (ABOUT US). All other requests for our services information, quote requests, or art shipping queries should be directed to us through our website which offers a choice of ways to contact us and obtain such information. That is basically the “business end” and this is the fun stuff.

At FINE ART SHIPPING we get calls and emails every day from customers who describe their painting or other framed artwork as already “softpacked” or “softwrapped.”

Generically this means, what? Well, most basically it signifies that something is not crated or slat crated or enclosed in a rigid container but is instead, softwrapped. Somehow. With something.

Over the years we have seen “softpacked” interpreted to mean:

• wrapped in a flannel shirt, with or without tape to secure (watch those buttons!)
• plastic bagged in flimsy bags sporting the dry cleaner’s name and address (my favorite)
• used, very used, occasionally chewed, plastic sheeting draped over the frame
• cardboard corners, but otherwise entirely naked
• loose in a box with an afterthought of bubble wrap settled primly over the top (schoolteacher)
• beachballed in bubble wrap, and taped tightly all around as if more couldn’t hurt, but it can (any package you have to cut to open is risky, especially when guessing at the outline of the object within)
• gift tissue paper re-used, glitter and all

Here’s an object wrapped in plastic with a foreign object taped to the outside, potentially damaging the piece – unless it’s part of the piece, on the exterior of the package, with tape all over it.

This one is wrapped in some random plastic material which is too thin to provide adequate protection.

A used box with misleading printing, taped shut after it began losing its rigidity – fine for moving some stuff across town, but not for shipping art or other valuables.

Here is a piece wrapped in thin plastic, sealed with clear tape yellowed with age (clear-on-clear is a headache for the unpacker), and way too much of it – requiring a lot of knife work to remove.

This piece is popping out of its plastic wrap, exposing it to damage and the elements.

The plastic draped over this piece is used, torn, dirty, unsealed, too thin, and has out-of-date labels.

The “diaper paper” shown here is more gentle on some objects than it may appear in the photo, but sitting uncushioned in a flimsy, open cardboard tray leaves the piece open to damage. And a delicate artwork can be hiding under those messy paper folds haphazardly taped.

Not that all “civilian” packing is inadequate: often it is quite good and serviceable for the intended mode of transport.

Our favorite example of ingenious civilian packing is the customer who tells the story of relocating a world class collection of wedgewood china back in the fifties from the rural south up to Los Angeles in her car, without breaking a single of many hundreds of items. The secret archival material? Sanitary napkins! And she invited us to imagine the look on the faces of the pharmacists as she and her grey haired husband looted the shelves of every box they could find…

This collection was many years later packed and crated by FINE ART SHIPPING and sent off to auction at Sotheby’s London. It contained items so rare that the only similar or matching ones are in possession of the royal family.

There is no one single industry standard for “softpacking”, although there are basic guidelines and understanding of what this means. The condition, medium, value and fragility of the item itself along with consideration of the intended mode of transport are key ingredients; there is no one solution for an entire class of artworks.

But by and large a “softpacked” painting to a professional means that the contents, if a flatwork, is wrapped with a moisture barrier, then packed into a custom cardboard box that is created from sheets of cardboard cut to size to surround the artwork on all sides and edges. This is then taped closed and labeled as to the “face” side and correct orientation. This is also referred to as a “slipcase”.

Slipcases may have other ingredients such as:

• foam lining along the bottom of the pack to protect a heavy frame from its own weight
• wrapping of the artwork itself in glassine or dartek archival materials
• double cardboard over the “face” of the package for added protection
• collar wrapping or “shadow” boxing to allow for air circulation and/or to keep packing material from touching the face of textured, damp or unstable artwork
• glasskin taping over real glass to avoid damage to the artwork if the glass breaks in transit (glasskin is essentially oversized masking tape with an easily removable adhesive)

The elegance of a basic cardboard slipcase…

When traveling in the custody of professional art handlers, even a large slipcase like this can be a safe and economical alternative to crating.

Softpacks can take many shapes, and manufactured, double-wall cartons are often the best option for the job.

…even when a little modification is required.

Large or grouped softpacks are often palletized for greater protection in transit.

The custom pallet is a stronger, leaner and more efficient alternative to standard shipping pallets.

As with crating, the most important part of a softpack is the part that isn’t seen until it arrives safely at the destination.

Cardboard isn’t the only material used for rigid softpacks. When an object has special needs but crating isn’t an option, there is still a variety of archival and alternative packing materials to choose from.

It is important to let your art handler know exactly how your artworks will be wrapped when received. “Softpacked” can mean anything, and often does. If your carrier assumes this means slipcased, and you are operating in flannel shirt mode, this can create risk for the object if the service picking up is not prepared to further wrap the artwork or to return it to a warehouse where this can be done.

There are some prefabricated boxes which can be suitable for packing artworks and some which are eminently NOT suitable: we will have fun with those in a future post. Happy packing!

Betsy Dorfman