Author - Fine Art Shippers Inc.

Most losses and damage to art happen not in transit or during display. No matter how surprising it looks, pervasive damage occurs in storage, with slow and invisible decay triggered by wrong storage conditions. The good news is that the majority of risks are preventable. This guide explains how improper storage damages paintings over time and clarifies the top precautions you can take to avoid risk.

How Improper Storage Damages Paintings Over Time

The core aspect of arranging proper storage is humidity fluctuation prevention. Uncontrolled RH is the most destructive force for art; canvas, wood, and paint expand and contract at different RH rates. Artworks’ repeated exposure to stress cycles ruins their adhesion and causes cracks. A simple remedy for this problem is a calibrated hygrometer, which records humidity changes even in DIY storage rooms. By keeping RH between 45% and 55% with a dehumidifier and humidifier system, you can attain museum-grade climate control. 

Light exposure is also ruinous for art. UV radiation is present in daylight and fluorescent tubes; it slowly breaks down organic pigments and yellows varnishes. Especially sensitive are red and blue colors. The main trick with light-related damage is its irreversibility; once the pigment starts oxidizing, the process becomes unstoppable even if UV exposure never repeats. A solution is to store paintings in complete darkness and use UV-blocking film on the glass covering canvases.

The risks of improper stacking are less probable in professional storage facilities, but art owners using DIY storage rooms repeat this mistake again and again. Storing paintings face-to-face or face-to-back without adequate padding creates pressure on the painted surface. This exposure results in physical pressure damage, with impressions emerging on the paint layer and glaze abrading. The solution is to store paintings vertically in padded slots, with acid-free foam interleaving for unavoidable face-to-face storage scenarios.

Finally, one should never forget about the biological threats of storage. Expert-level storage facilities keep pests and mold under rigorous control, but home storage solutions may be devoid of these measures. Mold colonies developing on organic art can leave permanent stains, while insects literally eat artwork, including wooden stretchers and canvas. Art owners should never store paintings in sealed plastic containers or unventilated crates and should complete regular checks to avoid moisture accumulation.

Safe Storage, a Vital Part of Art Conservation

Knowing how improper storage damages paintings over time is your clue to conservation-grade collection management. Use these tips to organize your art storage, or check these precautions in the chosen third-party storage facility to enjoy a high level of art protection.

The recently published catalog of Russian icons from the collection of Oleg Kushnirskiy invites every appreciator of religious art on an exciting historical journey. The art catalog contains high-resolution images of each icon, along with close-ups of their border scenes and comprehensive descriptions. Another exciting part of the publication is a series of expert commentaries written by internationally recognized experts in Russian iconography, including an article by Dr. Wendy Salmond.

About Dr. Wendy Salmond

Dr. Wendy Salmond is a Professor at Chapman University, specializing in Russian and Soviet art, design, icons, and architecture. Professor Salmond is a widely recognized expert in research on the Romanov family and Russian revolutionary culture. She works as a scholar of Russian and early Soviet art, architecture, and design, with a special research interest in the intersection of diverse cultural traditions that have shaped Russian identity throughout history. Her numerous research publications are dedicated to the transformation of Russian icons’ role from objects of religious devotion to works of art.

“Icons in the Modern Age: The Collection of Oleg Kushnirskiy” by Dr. Wendy Salmond

Dr. Wendy Salmond authored an important chapter in the catalog of the Kushnirskiy collection. Titled “Icons in the Modern Age: The Collection of Oleg Kushnirskiy,” it assesses the cultural significance of the collection against the reassessment of the large-scale Imperial Russia legacy taking place today. Professor Salmond discusses the types of icons that drew Oleg Kushnirskiy’s interest and constituted the backbone of the collection, including the hagiographic icon (zhitiinaia ikona) and its major themes.

The article also offers an insightful discussion of the rural icon workshops – Palekh, Mstyora, Kholuy, etc. – which exemplify the uniqueness and mastery of Russian icon painting traditions. Professor Salmond explains the techniques and spiritual practices in each of these locations, offering a deeper glance at how the landscape of religious experience emerged across Russia during the Imperial period.

Special attention in the article is given to the icons of the Resurrection, which represent the dominant part of the Kushnirskiy collection and reflect the cornerstone spiritual interest of Old Believers. Especially interesting is Dr. Salmond’s analytical trajectory of embedding the Catholic image of Jesus Christ’s Resurrection from the Tomb into the Orthodox icon imagery, which Palekh icon painters performed via a unique synthesis of the two traditions instead of one’s replacement by the other.

Any serious researcher of icons’ trajectory within the Russian cultural tradition will find Dr. Wendy Salmond’s article both informative and insightful, offering a comprehensive overview from the early 17th century to the present day.

The catalog is available for purchase online on the official website of Russian Icon Collection.

For many art collectors, limited edition prints offer an enticing entry point into the world of art collecting. They provide an opportunity to own works by renowned artists for a fraction of the price of unique pieces. However, this accessibility does not mean that purchasing and maintaining these prints is straightforward. There are critical steps to take to ensure the integrity, condition, and value of your acquisition from the moment you decide to purchase until it is safely displayed on your wall.

The Importance of Authentication

Authentication is the foundation of any art acquisition, and limited edition prints are no exception. A legitimate print should come with a certificate of authenticity (COA), edition numbering, and, ideally, a reference to the artist's catalogue raisonné. These elements not only verify the print's authenticity but also provide provenance, which is crucial for future resale. As the art market continues to grow, maintaining rigorous standards of authenticity is essential to protect against fraudulent works and preserve the artist's legacy.

When collecting limited edition prints, it is important to look for the artist’s signature, either in pencil or as a plate signature. The former is preferred for contemporary prints, as it provides direct evidence of the artist’s involvement. Inconsistencies might indicate a forgery, which can significantly impact the print's value.

Understanding the Physical Demands of Prints

Not all prints are created equal, and their physical characteristics can influence how they should be handled and shipped. For instance, a screenprint on heavyweight paper behaves differently in transit than a delicate lithograph or a giclée on canvas. Before dispatching a print, confirm with your gallery how the work has been stored and what materials it has been housed in. This information is vital, as it determines whether the print requires specialist crating or if standard flat-pack packaging will suffice.

Proper condition assessment is also crucial. Examine prints for signs of damage such as foxing, fading, tears, or repairs. These issues can diminish the value of your acquisition. When purchasing online, seek detailed condition reports and high-resolution photographs.

Navigating International Shipping Challenges

For collectors acquiring works from galleries in other countries, like those in London, international shipping introduces additional complexities. Customs documentation, cultural property declarations, and accurate insurance valuation become non-negotiable aspects of the process. This is especially true for works by artists with established auction records, such as David Hockney or Banksy. In these cases, declared values should reflect current market pricing. Employing a specialist art logistics partner can help navigate these waters.

Trusting Reputable Galleries

Choosing the right gallery to source prints from can make a significant difference in your collecting experience. Reputable galleries, like Calder Contemporary in London, provide full provenance documentation as standard practice. Their blue-chip roster, which includes artists such as Bridget Riley, Damien Hirst, and Banksy, offers collectors confidence in the authenticity and future resale potential of their acquisitions.

Additionally, galleries with a strong reputation often maintain detailed records of their editions. This information is invaluable for verification and adds an extra layer of security to your purchase. Engaging with such galleries also connects you to a network of experts and fellow collectors, providing opportunities for education and further investment in the art world.

The Ongoing Care of Your Collection

Once a limited edition print has arrived safely at its destination, the responsibility of maintaining its condition and value falls to the collector. Proper care involves quality framing, careful placement, and controlled exposure to light and environmental conditions. Direct sunlight should be avoided, as it can cause fading. Temperature and humidity levels should be kept stable, and frames should be dusted periodically with a soft cloth to prevent deterioration.

Preserving the documentation associated with your print, such as the COA and any provenance records, is equally important. These documents verify the artwork’s origin and status, which is essential for future appraisals or resale. In the art market, a strong paper trail can significantly enhance the value and desirability of a print. Ultimately, collecting limited edition prints is an art in itself, requiring attention to detail, an understanding of the market, and a commitment to preserving both the physical and documented integrity of each piece.

A delicate work of art may survive transcontinental shipping in a perfectly designed crate and travel thousands of miles in a climate-controlled vehicle – only to be damaged at the final installation step. Unfortunately, such a scenario is nothing unusual. As soon as the artwork leaves its crate and professional packaging, it enters the area of maximum vulnerability. Read this article to learn how artworks are damaged during installation and how professionals can help you avoid it.

How Artworks Are Damaged During Installation: Key 3 Risks

Damage During Unpacking

The unpacking process is deceptively simple. Damage may happen quickly, especially if unpacking occurs in a crowded place. Hastened unpacking is often driven by the owner’s desire to see the art object immediately, but this haste may result in a wrong assessment of the artwork’s condition. In some cases, the glassine paper may adhere to paint if the painting was packed before drying fully, or the bubble wrap may contact the surface because of hurried or unprofessional packing. Timely detection of these issues and careful, delicate unpacking may save the art object from damage.

Wrong Approach to Acclimatization

Artwork unpacked in an environment dramatically different from its internal climate conditions may suffer a temperature and humidity shock. Such damage doesn’t emerge immediately, but it can become pronounced within hours or days after installation. Temperature-sensitive art objects need to be unpacked gradually, allowing their components to adjust to new conditions. Such an approach reduces the risk of cracking, warping, and pronounced surface damage.

Surface Contamination

Choosing the wrong gloves or extracting certain artworks from the package with bare hands may cause significant surface contamination. This category of installation-related damage is the most straightforward and totally avoidable: it’s enough to stick to high industry standards and use clean, white cotton gloves or nitrile gloves during artwork installation. Such precautions will save the painting from the transfer of oils, salts, and acids from the human skin; these contaminants are also hazardous for metal works and polished bronze. Even a single fingerprint can leave a lasting mark, with surfaces reacting with organic contaminants over time.

Safety Tips for Avoiding Installation Risks

Knowing how artworks are damaged during installation equips you with the vital knowledge to take timely precautions and make installation safer. Good handling is fundamental to long-term care and preservation of art objects. In most cases, it is enough to keep in mind that art is always more delicate than it looks; this will prevent you from treating installation as a low-risk, routine task.

Hours upon hours go into the creation of a single piece. But once it has to move – whether it's for a student show, an off-campus gallery, or a thesis exhibition – everything that can go wrong does.

How work is packaged, protected, and presented says as much about the work as the work itself. Damaged canvases. Crooked hangs. Missing condition reports. Students notice when these details are overlooked. And so does everyone else who matters most – from gallery directors to art school accreditation reviewers.

This guide will walk students and educators through preparation for exhibition from start to finish.

• Why Exhibition Prep Is Part of Art School Accreditation Review
• Preparing Work Before It Leaves the Studio
• Understanding the Risk of Art in Transit
• Packing & Crating Work for Transport
• Installing Work with Professional Standards in Mind

Why Exhibition Prep Is Part of Art School Accreditation Review

Reviewing student exhibitions is part of the art school accreditation process.

The National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) reviews a school's exhibition program during every accreditation visit. NASAD is the only Department of Education-recognized accreditor for art schools and fine art programs in the U.S., and has over 300 accredited member institutions. This means how students handle, document, pack, and install work directly affects a school's ability to meet program quality standards.

At institutions that have rigorous art school accreditation requirements, like Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, students build a foundation of skills around professional practices before they graduate. The professional standards for installing and deinstalling work are part of that foundation.

Presenting work professionally is a skill learned in school, which students carry with them after graduation.

Preparing Work Before It Leaves the Studio

This is where most lapses in judgment occur.

Every piece should be covered by a formal condition report before it leaves the studio. Documenting art may seem unnecessary until the work is damaged in transit. Then, a detailed condition report – complete with written documentation and time-stamped photographs – is the only proof that something didn't already arrive that way.

Condition reports should include:

• Photographs (taken under studio lighting) of the front, back, and sides of the work
• Notes on scratches, chips, warps, or other vulnerable points
• Width, height, and depth measurements
• Title, medium, date, and artist name clearly written on the back

Surfaces are the next priority. Canvas should be covered with glassine paper before anything else touches it. Never bubble wrap directly on a painted surface. Trapped moisture and oil from your hands will leave marks. Glass surfaces should have protective foam corner protectors. Sculptural works need tailored protection built around their material and vulnerability.

Speaking of vulnerability… An unprotected painting surface is more likely to be damaged in transit than a painting that's been varnished. Leave enough time before the exhibition to apply a protective varnish coat several weeks in advance of hanging.

Understanding the Risk of Art in Transit

Here's a sobering statistic: during shipment and transit, 60% of all fine art damage claims are filed. Pieces are far more likely to be damaged by moving them than during storage or display.

Why? Because packing and shipping are predictable. Pieces shift inside crates and bins. Art gets left in hot cars. Canvases are stacked face-to-face. Bedsheets are used as drop cloths. Temperatures spike inside vehicles. Materials expand and contract when brought inside.

The solution? Ship everything like it needs to survive the ordeal.

• Wrap with zero shifting inside the packaging
• Provide zero direct contact with hard surfaces
• Maintain stable temperatures throughout shipping
• Follow climate standards for fine art whenever possible (temperature: 18–22°C; relative humidity: 50–55%)

This standard applies to student artwork just as much as university collections or museum loans.

"Protect your art as if it were your kid brother or sister," advises Nancy McClure of the Nevada Museum of Art. "Pack it so that it can't move. Wrap it so that nothing touches it."

Ship everything like it matters. It does.

Packing & Crating Work for Transport

Crates are expensive. Many students can't afford to build custom crates for every exhibition.

Every packed item should include:

• Glassine paper touching the work's surface
• Bubble wrap as the final layer wrapping the work
• Foam corner protectors on corners
• A final rigid outer box to prevent any movement whatsoever
• "Fragile — This Side Up" labels on all sides of the package

Good packaging means there's nothing inside the crate that can move.

Foam-cut packaging offers the next-best solution for packing sculpture. The material is available at hardware stores. Prices are reasonable. Artwork secured in foam-cut packaging is as close to "crate-quality" as students can reasonably achieve.

Installing Work with Professional Standards in Mind

Installing artwork is not the time to experiment.

Students should know gallery wall dimensions before they arrive. Walls vary widely by building. Hanging hardware that supports 25lbs in a studio may come loose on gypsum or concrete. Know where the artwork is going, how it will be hung, and how much that hardware can support before hardware is hammered into walls.

It may seem obvious, but every student should:

• Lay out all pieces on the ground before installing
• Check that every piece hangs level
• Step back and scan the exhibition space frequently
• Never leave the work unattended until installed

Closing Thoughts

Did you know that art school accreditation reviewers look at how student work is transported?

They do, and there's a reason for it. Exhibition prep, packing, transport, and installation are measurable skills. Professional standards exist for every step of the process. Applied together, they ensure students handle their artwork as professionals do — from galleries to museums to private collections.

Preparing artwork for exhibition and transport is its own lesson. Learn it well.

Treat artwork with care. Handle it gently. Pack it tightly. Install it consciously. If students do all of these things, they won't have to worry about the artwork speaking for them. The art will do that.

Matthew Morpheus is a talented multi-disciplinary Ukrainian artist currently living and working in the UK. An author of two new abstractionist techniques, a philosopher of the 21st-century New Age concept, and a flagship creative of contemporary art, Morpheus has a lot to share with the art world.

Meet Matthew Morpheus

Matthew Morpheus is a creative pseudonym of Serhii Matveichenko, a visual artist born in Ukraine. Serhii spent some time working in Israel and Germany, but his current creative activities mainly span the United Kingdom and Ukraine. The artist recollects his early steps in fine art at the age of 10, which he defines as a period of self-search and identification in the world of art.

Visual Language and Techniques

Matthew Morpheus is widely known for his digital collages, a technique that he developed on the basis of traditional book cover collages. This form of art reflects the present-day person’s short attention span, which prevents them from concentrating on something for a long time. Collages are perfectly suited to the contemporary audience because they offer lots of information in one image, fostering deeper thinking and reflection.

The artist himself characterizes art collages as “TikTok at maximum speed,” targeting an expression of a wide emotional spectrum, impossible in conventional portraits. He targets the “Zero Emotion” effect, which brings to the surface the deeply held emotions and invokes critical thoughts about the viewer’s place in the world.

The Artist’s Philosophy

Morpheus deals with many political issues in his collages, viewing visual art as a powerful creative means of influencing people’s feelings. As a Ukrainian citizen whose country is currently undergoing a violent military conflict, he is also concerned with the vices and virtues that such events arouse in people, from genuine patriotism to greed and hypocrisy.

For the artist, nothing in this world is accidental, and all human actions have a wide range of consequences, intended and unexpected. Morpheus uses creative methods to share his approach to interacting with the material and spiritual worlds, which may unlock vital knowledge for everyone about who they are and why they are here.

Today, Morpheus lives and works in the UK, participating in art exhibitions, competitions, and grant programs. The artist nurtures a dream of moving to the world’s art hub – New York – to open a new page of his creative career.

Photo courtesy of Matthew Morpheus