The Importance of Art Insurance

You are protecting the important things in your life: your home, your car, your health.

What about your art?

As with other investments, you should have a back-up plan in case of loss or damage. And even if you take precautions, your collection can be lost or damaged!

Whether you're a seasoned art enthusiast or a recent collector, it's important to understand the value of art insurance and protect yourself by properly covering your valuable collection.

The motivation to take out an art insurance policy goes beyond theft. In fact, 47 percent of art lost is due to damage during transit. The New York Times. Here are 5 reasons to insure your art collection:

Understand the retail value of your collection

If you lose everything tomorrow, do you know how much your collection is worth? Unlike other insured property such as homes and cars, art and jewelry collections are created with love and care. Because of this, sometimes art does not receive the same financial care that is applied to other assets. Forbes magazine.

To understand the true value of your collection, it is important to take out a policy through a reliable insurance company. These insurance companies will send art appraisers to determine the replacement value, not the purchase price, of your collection to ensure adequate coverage.

When you take out a policy, the first step is to catalog your collection. We would be remiss if we didn't mention that as a contributor, you can not only catalog your collection, you can also mark the purchase price and track investment growth. Plus, your data is backed up every night so no information is ever lost!

Arm yourself against gallery bugs

Savvy art collectors know that exhibiting your work in galleries is a great way to add value, but it's important to take the appropriate precautions before donating your work. Not only can a work be damaged in transit, it can be mishandled, stolen, and even sold without the consent of the owner. Historically, gallery contracts can be vague. Because of these handshakes, collectors are not always aware of the legal risks. The New York Times.

Having the right insurance policy will protect you from potential fraud and property damage.

Protect your items from dangers in your home

Art over the fireplace? Heat and humidity are quick ways to devalue art. And if the piece has not been moved for years? Most likely, the wires holding it are ready to break. Even if your art never leaves the safe house, fire, flood, and other accidents can happen. Even fastidious collectors cannot easily protect their works from unforeseen domestic incidents. With the right insurance policy, you can protect yourself from a long list of home hazards and safely display and enjoy your prized collection.

The art trade is a real and present danger

The art trade ranks third after the drug and arms trade among the world's criminal enterprises. While the numbers behind this claim are difficult to measure for various reasons, theft experts around the world, including Interpol, routinely cite these statistics.

According to Interpol, one way to combat this crime is to prepare inventories of public and private collections, using standards such as art insurance that will make it easy to disseminate information in the event of theft. Be prepared for the possibility of theft from your home, gallery, vault, or museum with proper insurance.

Reimbursement for Damaged or Lost Art

Ultimately, the benefit of art insurance is to fully recover the cost of lost or damaged art. If your personal collection, including jewelry, watches, and other collectibles, is valued above four figures, it's likely that your homeowner's insurance won't adequately cover losses. While we understand that many works of art are irreplaceable and insurance will not compensate for any emotional loss, in the long run, art is an investment that deserves protection.

Looking for more tips for protecting your artwork? Check out our blog post at "."