The local problem
Why This Climate Is Hard on Art
Heat, salt, humidity and storms. Four conditions that make South Florida a difficult place to keep a collection at home.
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.
What the climate actually does
Sustained high humidity for months at a time, which is the condition mould requires and nothing else. Heat, which accelerates every chemical process in photographic material and in varnish. Salt air near the coast, which affects metals and frames. And a hurricane season that arrives annually.
- Humidity high enough, for long enough, for mould to establish.
- Heat accelerating dye shift and film degradation.
- Salt air on metal, frames and fittings near the water.
- Daily cycling in houses conditioned only when occupied.
- Storm season, every year, without exception.
The seasonal-home problem
A house closed for the summer with the air conditioning set high, or off, spends months in exactly the conditions that damage art. The owner returns in autumn to a collection that has been sitting at ninety percent relative humidity since May.
This is the single most common way a South Florida collection is damaged, and it is entirely invisible until it is not.
What to keep at home and what to store
Keep what you actually look at. Store what you are keeping, what you have inherited, what does not fit, and what you would not be able to replace.
The work you live with is worth the risk of living with it. The work in the closet is not.
Common questions
- Is a closed seasonal home safe for art?
- It is the most common way a South Florida collection is damaged. Months at high humidity does lasting harm.
- Does salt air matter inland?
- Much less. Near the water it affects metal, frames and fittings noticeably.
- Should we store everything?
- No. Keep what you look at. Store what is inherited, stored, or irreplaceable.
- Is a garage or closet acceptable?
- In this climate, not for anything you care about.
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.