Shipping or moving fine art pieces requires extra measures to protect the art and ensure it arrives in perfect condition. Working with a fine art delivery service or shipping company can be a great way to get the art where it needs to be, without the worry of damage along the way.
Custom Crating
When you are shipping fine art, packing or crating the items you are shipping is critical. Working with a fine art delivery service that offers custom crating can help ensure that the artwork arrives in the same condition they were in before shipping.
The crates used to ship fine art items are not always the same, and the delivery service may create one from scratch that will hold the fine art items perfectly. The goal is to ensure that the art pieces can not move around in the crate, so sometimes custom compartments or sections are created to allow a single item to be isolated and packing material put around it.
The delivery service will typically include custom crating in the cost of shipping, but be sure to ask about it when you are getting shipping estimates. Once the crating is complete, it is carefully marked to indicate the orientation of the crate and any restriction on it so the crate is not damaged by mishandling or having something stacked on it that shouldn’t be.
Shipping Your Art
Once the art is ready for shipping, the fine art delivery service will find a way to get it to its destination unscathed. In some cases, crates are shipped on trailers equipped with air ride suspension systems that help to ensure the crate does not get bounced around inside the truck.
Fine art items may be flown to a destination, especially smaller crates that can be easily loaded into the cargo hold of commercial flights going to a specific location. If the art is only going across town, the same crating and shipping precautions are necessary to ensure the art pieces are not damaged no matter how far they must travel.
Insuring Art for Shipping
A fine art delivery service will have insurance coverage for the art they are delivering for you, but most services recommend adding additional insurance to the shipment. The delivery service will often only insure the items at the minimum federally required level of about sixty cents per hundred pounds.
In many cases, this is not enough to cover rare art, so adding additional insurance coverage for the value of the art is suggested. Many specialty insurance carriers can insure the art while it is in transit, and the fine art delivery service you are working with can suggest several insurers for you.
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