If you own some pieces of valuable fine art, moving home can be a stressful time fraught with worry that your treasures may be damaged in transit.
Here's a guide on how to make sure that your artwork and sculptures arrive safely.
Packing Paintings
Paintings should be packed in special crates to keep them totally safe. Your removalists will custom-build a wooden case around the painting to fit its precise dimensions. The idea of a special travelling crate for your artwork is to protect the piece from damage by other items of furniture that might move around in the removal van during transit, and to guard against changing temperatures and humidity. When you arrive at your destination, the removalists will disassemble the case for you.
If your paintings need to travel in special climate-controlled conditions, be sure to ask the removalists if they can provide this service at the time you book. If not, you may have to use a specialist removal company just for your artworks.
Packing Sculptures
Every sculpture is unique in shape and form, making packing tricky. Your removalists should provide special, foam-padded wooden crates for the transport of valuable sculptures. These museum-quality sculpture transport boxes are constructed with rigid frames, cushioning and, custom cribbing to ensure that your pieces aren't damaged in transit.
Another important consideration when moving pieces of sculpture is whether they will fit through doorways at your destination property. Before your move date, pay a visit to your destination property and measure doorways. Pass the measurements to your removalist well in advance so that contingency plans can be made if necessary.
Very large sculptures should be disassembled if possible, and each part packed separately. If this is not possible and the piece is too heavy to be moved manually into the removal van, you may have to rent a small crane to move the piece. A good removals company will be able to organise this for you.
Leave It to the Experts
If your local removalists are not able or prepared to move your artworks for you, you may have to ask a specialist firm to do so for you. Companies that specialise in moving valuable artworks will appraise the pieces for you and provide purpose-built crates and packaging as appropriate.
Depending on how much other stuff you have to move, it may be a good idea to schedule the move of your fine art for a day after the main move has taken place. This will allow you to get everything else unpacked and tidied away before your treasures arrive. The less mess and chaos there is, the less likely something is to get broken.
