How it works · Intake & Condition Reporting
What Happens on the First Day
Intake is the most important day in a work's time with us, because everything afterwards is measured against what was recorded then.
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
Without a baseline there is only argument
A mark is noticed two years later. Was it there on arrival? Without a dated, photographed condition report the question has no answer, and the conversation becomes a dispute between two parties who both believe they are right. The report exists to make that conversation unnecessary.
The report also protects the relationship rather than just the parties. Without a baseline, a mark noticed later becomes a question about honesty between people who have to keep working together. With one, it is a matter of comparing two records, and the conversation stays factual.
What intake produces
- Photographs of every item, front, back and detail where relevant.
- A written condition note in plain language.
- A stable identifier that will not change.
- A location record within the facility.
- A copy to you, before anything is racked.
Read it when you receive it
The report is written to describe what we received, and you are the only person who knows whether that matches what you sent. Reading it on arrival and raising anything that looks wrong is what makes it a shared record rather than our account.
It takes a few minutes and it is the point at which any disagreement is easy to resolve. Six months later it is considerably harder.
How we handle it
- 01Report condition before anything is moved to storage.
- 02Photograph comprehensively rather than representatively.
- 03Note existing damage explicitly, including minor issues.
- 04Give you the record, not just keep it.
- 05Re-report on every subsequent movement.
Read the intake report when you receive it, and say so if something is missing. It is the document that protects you, and it is only useful if you have actually checked that it describes what you sent.
Said plainly
Where we stop
A condition report describes what is visible to a trained eye. It is not a conservation examination and it will not identify restoration, overpaint or structural issues beneath the surface.
Common questions
- Do we get a copy?
- Yes, before anything is racked.
- What if we disagree with it?
- Tell us immediately. That is the point of receiving it at the start.
- Is it a conservation examination?
- No. It records what is visible; it will not identify overpaint or hidden structural issues.
- Is condition re-checked later?
- On every movement.
What we store
Paintings
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.
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Works on Paper
Drawings, prints, watercolours and documents. The damage is slow, cumulative and usually invisible until it is substantial.
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Photographs & Negatives
Photographic material is chemically active. Color dyes shift, acetate film decays, and both processes are driven by temperature and humidity.
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Sculpture & Objects
Three-dimensional works fail mechanically rather than chemically. The risks are handling, support and the point where somebody decided one person could manage it.
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Furniture & Decorative Arts
Antique furniture is a wooden structure held together with animal glue and faced with veneer. All three respond to humidity, and they respond differently from one another.
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Mixed Collections
Estates, private collections and the contents of a house being renovated. The material is mixed, and the problem is usually documentation rather than environment.
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More how it works
Access & Viewing
Stored work still needs to be seen — by you, your appraiser, a conservator, or a prospective buyer. Access is by appointment and it is handled rather than self-service.
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Insurance & Valuation
Your work is insured under your policy or a specialist fine art policy. Our role is to give your underwriter records they will accept.
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Exhibition Loans
A loan request is a good problem. It also involves paperwork, condition reporting at both ends, and a work leaving a controlled environment for months.
Read more →
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.