NEWS & EVENTS

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Fine art transport by air and sea

Plane or Sailing: What’s Best for Fine Art Transport?

POSTED ON November 20, 2017 BY Art Enthusiast

With fine art transport, you need to weigh up the options of getting your valuable works from one place to another.

When you want to move fine art, whether just one piece or many items for an exhibition, you have to consider how to get it there. A number of factors will dictate what method of transportation art gallery and museum managers opt for, including time and costs. But the most important is total security, so the valuable works survive the trip and arrive intact.

There are, of course, many risks with fine art transport, meaning you cannot just leave the task to any shipping or transport firm. Insurance requirements will usually call for specialist fine art transport; experts who have many years’ experience handling and transporting priceless works of art without a problem. Trying to cut costs by using a general shipping firm may well result in disaster.

The absolute worst thing that can happen during the transportation of your fine art is that the works of art are not just damaged (it may be possible to repair them, after all), but that they are stolen en route to their destination. This is a very real prospect and one that unfortunately has occurred many times in recent years. The works will most likely disappear into private hands, having been sold off via black-market contacts.

High-Flying Fine Art Transport

Many owners and directors of art galleries and museums turn to aircraft for their fine art transport needs. It’s fast but can be costly, and it’s not always accommodating to particular art transport requirements. Large paintings may not fit in the cargo holds of the type of small passenger planes used on short-haul flights around Europe, for example.

Fine art transport specialists, like us here at Momentous, talk to their clients about the works they want to ship and come up with the best solutions. If it’s possible to transport artworks by air, getting them to their location as swiftly as possible and reducing the security risks, a fine art logistics team will work out the most effective way to do it.

We always make sure that when fine art is being transported by air, either around the UK, to wider Europe or anywhere in the world, that it does not travel alone. We have a specialised flight courier who accompanies works on their journey, ensuring they reach their destination and are properly unpacked and ready to be displayed at the exhibition.

All at Sea with Fine Art Transport

If time is not an issue, it may be best to consider sea transport to move fine art from one location to another. Plus, it’s ideal for large works of art that cannot be transported by air. Indeed, planning fine art transport far in advance of an exhibition will give you the option of using sea transport anyway. If it’s an entire exhibition involving large volumes of art, it may, in fact, be the only viable way.

Getting to the seaport or airport must also be considered. Our vehicles, for instance, are specially configured to protect your fine art during transport. They’re climate-controlled to provide the perfect environment for even the most delicate works, and have insulated bodies and air-ride suspension

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