What we store · Paintings
Canvas, Panel and the Speed of Change
Stretched canvas and wooden panel respond to moisture in the air by moving. Stored well they are stable for decades; stored in a swinging environment they crack.
Come and see the environment before you send anything. Bring your registrar, your conservator or your insurer — we would rather they saw it than took our word for it.
Climate
Controlled temperature and relative humidity, continuously
Above
Above the floodplain — not a basement
Condition
Reported on intake and on every movement
Named
You know who handles your work
Stability beats any single number
A painting held steadily at a slightly imperfect relative humidity will usually outlast one cycled daily between ideal and poor. Canvas tightens and slackens; panel expands across the grain and the paint layer, which does not move the same way, is what fails. Rate of change is the specification, and it is the thing cheap storage does not control.
Frames deserve separate attention because they are frequently older and more fragile than the painting, and they are what gets handled. Gilded and composition frames chip and lose ornament under exactly the sort of contact that racking and moving involves, and that damage is a conservation problem in its own right.
What we control
- Relative humidity held stable, with the rate of change limited.
- Temperature controlled continuously rather than during business hours.
- No direct light, and no ultraviolet.
- Racked vertically and separated, never stacked face to face.
- Handled by two people on anything above a size one person should carry.
What a stable environment actually means
Not a target figure but a narrow band held continuously, including overnight, at weekends and through a power interruption. The damage comes from the swing rather than from the level, which is why a facility conditioned only during occupied hours is the wrong arrangement however good its daytime readings look.
Ask to see a record over a period rather than a reading on the day. That record is the only evidence that distinguishes a controlled environment from a conditioned room.
How we handle it
- 01Condition report with photographs on intake.
- 02Rack vertically on padded, separated bays.
- 03Maintain a stable environment continuously, not on a schedule.
- 04Re-report condition on every movement.
- 05Provide records your insurer and appraiser will accept.
Ask any storage facility what happens to the environment overnight, at weekends, and during a power outage. Buildings that condition only during occupied hours produce exactly the daily cycling that damages paintings, and the readings during a tour will look perfect.
Said plainly
Where we stop
We do not carry out conservation. If a work arrives with active flaking or an unstable surface, we will tell you and stop, so your conservator can look at it before it is racked.
Common questions
- What relative humidity do you hold?
- A stable band. The stability matters more than the exact figure, and we will show you the actual record rather than a target.
- What happens in a power outage?
- Ask any facility this. Conditioning only during occupied hours produces the daily cycling that damages paintings.
- Are works stacked?
- No. Racked vertically, separated, never face to face.
- Do you do conservation?
- No. We store and handle. If something looks unstable we stop and tell you.
How it works
Intake & Condition Reporting
art storage intake condition report
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Access & Viewing
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Insurance & Valuation
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Exhibition Loans
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Hurricane Procedure
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Tell us what needs to move.
What, from where, and roughly when. You do not need an inventory to start the conversation, and if the job belongs with an armored carrier we will say so on the call.