With the number of art galleries increasing at a rapid rate, more collectors entering the field, collectors building substantial holdings, and museums expanding, the demand for fine art storage has increased, too.
Art-storage firms typically offer fireproof buildings, trained security personnel, surveillance cameras, motion detectors, and transport. Crating, shipping, customs, and condition reports are among the other services they offer. Clients can store their artworks either in rooms that accommodate the holdings of other clients, or in private rooms. Viewing spaces where dealers, as well as art advisors, can display the art works they have on offer to clients are also a feature. Private collectors also use viewing spaces on a short-term basis.
‘I think that from 30 to 50 per cent of major collectors use our viewing rooms where they can take their friends to see their other collections,’ says Simon Hornby, president and CEO of New York-based ‘art logistics’ firm Crozier Fine Arts. (The company was founded in SoHo in 1976 and acquired by the information management company Iron Mountain in 2015.) read more