Artemble
Packing a Work for Its Collector
Everything here exists to get your painting into someone’s hands in exactly the state it left yours. Read section two before you touch the work. It is the one that matters most.
01Before you pack anything
Photograph the work. Front, back, and a close frame of each corner, in daylight, before a single sheet of anything touches it. If a courier damages the painting, these photographs are what settle the claim. Without them the insurer will generally decline.
Keep them until the collector confirms the work arrived safely, and send them to us if anything goes wrong.
What we have already sent you
- Glassine or acid-free tissue (the only thing that touches the paint)
- Corner protectors
- Fragile and orientation tape
- The wax-sealed certificate of authenticity for this work
- A thank-you card for the collector
What you supply
- Rigid board: foam board or stiff cardboard, two pieces
- Bubble wrap
- A polythene sheet or bag
- A double-wall corrugated carton, or plywood for large works
02The rule that matters most
Never put bubble wrap against a painted surface
Under the pressure and warmth of transit, the bubbles emboss themselves into the paint. On oil the marks are permanent and the work is finished. This is the most common way paintings are ruined in shipping, and it always looks harmless at the moment it is done.
Glassine or acid-free tissue goes against the paint. Always. Bubble wrap sits outside the rigid board, never inside it.
03Framed or stretched work
- Wrap in glassine or acid-free tissue. Cover the whole face and fold around the edges. Tape the glassine to itself, never to the painting, the frame, or the stretcher.
- Fit corner protectors to all four corners. Corners take almost every impact a parcel receives.
- Sandwich the work between two pieces of rigid board cut slightly larger than the piece, and tape the boards to each other around the edge. The work should not be able to move inside.
- Wrap the sandwich in bubble wrap, two layers, bubbles facing outward.
- Add a polythene sheet or bag against moisture. Customs holds and unheated cargo areas are damp.
- Box it in a double-wall carton with roughly 5cm of space on every side, filled so nothing shifts. Shake the closed box gently. If you hear or feel movement, add more fill.
- Enclose the certificate and the thank-you card in a flat envelope, on top, where the collector finds them first.
Larger than about 100cm on the long side? Use a plywood crate rather than a carton. Cartons of that size fold under their own weight in transit, and most couriers will not insure them.
04Unframed canvas sent rolled
Only roll a work if it was painted to be rolled and the paint is fully cured. Roll it face outward around a wide tube. Rolling face inward compresses the paint film and cracks it.
- Interleave the surface with glassine as you roll.
- Use the widest tube available. A tight roll is what causes cracking.
- Never fold a canvas. A fold is permanent.
- Cap both ends and tape them closed.
05Things that end badly
06Sealing and sending
Mark the box Fragile on every face and This Way Up with arrows on the sides. Couriers sort by whichever face lands upward, so one label is not enough.
On the customs declaration, describe the contents as an original painting and give the sale value we sent you. Do not understate it. The declared value is the insured value, and understating it means a damaged work is compensated at the lower figure.
Add the tracking number in your dashboard as soon as you have it. We pass it on to the collector, and that message is often the difference between someone feeling looked after and someone wondering whether anything happened at all.