Insuring Art during Shipping and Exhibition

[Garth Herrick]

Who has experience with art exhibition and shipping insurance agents? Is there any agency that is affordable out there?

I need to borrow a painting from a client for about a week at the outermost for an exhibition. As an experienced professional art handler, I will be shipping the painting in my own personal car, to a four day exhibition in a different city, and returning it personally to the client. This is hardly different logistically than painting and delivering the finished portrait to this client on my own in the first place. The exhibition will be extremely secure, but alas, it will not provide insurance to exhibiting artist's works. So on this occasion, my client requires me to produce a certificate of insurance specific to this destination and exhibition venue.

So far I have one quote from a prominent and reputable art insurance specialty agency that has me reeling because the premium they quoted is higher than the prize I can reasonably expect from this exhibition! It has a deductable as high as the premium, and understandably I will not be permitted to leave my car for the purpose of paying for fuel at a rest stop, etc.!!

What does everyone else do to insure their works?

Thanks in advance

Garth

[Michele Rushworth]

I've had a policy for a few years that I got through Flather and Perkins (rep: Ann Phenix, 800-422-8889, email annphenix@flatherperkins.com) who I gather do a lot of policies for artists.

They arranged for a commercial policy through The Hartford that covers a number of different things for my art business. Among them, it insures my work in transit and when it's on display outside of my studio. I don't know if the premiums and deductibles will be to your liking but they probably have a number of different options that would be worth checking out.

[Stanka Kordic]

I also have a commercial policy that sounds very similar to Michele's, covering studio, work within and in transit, and any pieces on display in galleries or exhibitions. It's handy when I need to ship paintings since it covers what Fedex will not (without paying extra) I bought it from a local agent that handles commercial insurance. As Michele also said, you can design it to fit your needs.

[Richard Monro]

Garth,
Make sure that the policy covers works you no longer own but have on loan for exhibition purposes. It could be a sticking point but you need to have that coverage as well.

[Michele Rushworth]

Richard makes an excellent point. Since you no longer own this painting, can you even get insurance on it or would its owner have to insure it?