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Fine Arts
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When you go to an exhibition of contemporary artwork or an Upper East Side gallery opening, you don’t care whether the works were safely transported or installed or adequately insured. You go because you want to experience art. DeWitt Stern’s fine art specialists work with dealers, registrars, lenders, museum or gallery directors, and private collectors to make sure that experience is a rewarding one for art lovers and for our clients too.
Our Fine Art Practice specializes in designing, placing, and servicing insurance programs for fine art dealers, museums, galleries, collections, auction houses and other fine art-related service companies. DeWitt Stern’s long-standing relationships with fine art insurance carriers with “A” or better ratings ensure that the programs our clients receive are well-designed and competitively priced. For decades, we have stood behind our clients and made sure their artwork was fully protected against financial loss.
There is no mistaking the passion for art that we share with our clients. We regularly attend openings, monitor auction results, and continually educate ourselves on the art scene. Yet it is the expertise in the art of properly insuring the world’s cultural assets that makes us so valuable to our clients.
This expertise is a palette comprised of outstanding service; a strong fine art team; the firm’s full service capabilities; and client resources and education. Click on any of the links below to learn more.
A Service Culture
Our commitment to our fine art clients begins and ends with service. While prices in some parts of the art market have gone down, pieces by well-established and high quality artists are maintaining their value. In this market, fine art dealers, particularly the smaller ones, are feeling the effects of tough economic times. They need to reduce their overhead and look to us to help them save money on their insurance. We meet with them and take the time to review their insured values. Has their owned or consigned inventory decreased in value? Have they looked at returning consignments that have not sold? Clients are cutting back by no longer participating in art fairs. We show them how this decreases their exposure to loss and should decrease their premiums as well.
Clients and prospects that are price-shopping quickly learn that we aren’t just looking for ways to save them money at renewal. We also work to maintain or improve their coverage.
Service also means responsiveness and going the extra mile for a client. Our fine art clients are used to getting their broker on the phone when they need him or her. But, if their broker is not in, they know that they can speak with someone on our fine art team who is equally capable. Museum registrars have more important things to worry about than insurance details and count on us to review things like unusual loan agreements. But we also make sure the wording of these agreements is aligned with any insurance policy.
We steer our dealer clients clear of similar problems with wording between contracts. A consignment agreement might state that the consignor will receive the full retail value if a consignment is lost or damaged. But the insurance policy only provides coverage for the consigned value plus 10%, considerably less than the full retail value. Discrepancies like this can put a dealer out of business. DeWitt Stern proactively reviews all contracts ensuring that the wording is consistent among contracts. This helps our clients avert a recurring problem in the art market. We recently sent a mailing/email blast with our suggested wording for many of these contracts and agreements.
Thorough and responsive insurance claims service is another reason our clients appreciate their DeWitt Stern brokers. Every claim scenario calls for a fine art broker with the experience to line up the required resources, from fine art claims and restoration experts to fine art claims adjusters. Knowing who these resources are and where they are located takes the kind of experience that can’t be bought. We work with our clients and negotiate with insurance companies until all issues have been resolved and the best settlement terms have been achieved. [back to list]
A Complete Team
DeWitt Stern’s fine art team is comprised of dedicated individuals, each firmly grounded in the business of insuring fine art. Several have degrees in art and art history and all take intensive courses in subjects like art appraisal and art law and ethics that enhance their skill sets. The team is active in the AAM, its committees and regional affiliates. With their love of art, they really appreciate how people in the art world function and understand the continual fluctuations in the art market.
Most of our clients are immersed in their specialty. Some have financial or business backgrounds. But, for nearly all, insurance won’t appear on their list of priorities until they need proof of coverage or have a claim. Everyone on the fine art team understands how important insurance is and is always there for a client. And, no one is coming off the bench. Anyone on our team can review a loan agreement and determine what is reasonable or flesh out all insurance coverage a dealer needs. Packers and shippers show us their policies and we can uncover inadequate limits on their umbrella liability policy, or recognize how they can save money by combining multiple auto policies into one, or combining all their policies with one carrier.
Our fine art brokers communicate with their clients in person, via phone, email, and BlackBerry. Each has remote network access in case their client needs service when the office is closed. We schedule face to face appointments at a moment’s notice. DeWitt Stern’s location near Grand Central enables us to meet with clients in the heart of the New York art scene within minutes. Our Chicago office also has an experienced fine art broker and full service capabilities.
The firm is structured to allow clients to speak with their broker or any of his or her team members, the department head, or Jolyon Stern, our chairman, at any time. This means a lot to our clients, especially those who’ve dealt with bigger brokers whose fine art and management teams are continually changing. It means a lot to our brokers, too. At DeWitt Stern, there is no mysterious billing department two time zones away. When they have a billing question, they know who to call. [back to list]
Full Service Capabilities
DeWitt Stern can handle our fine art clients’ entire insurance portfolios. This is something few fine art insurance brokers can do at all, and very few can do as well. From package policies, to liability, workers’ compensation, and disability, to employee benefits and personal lines, we cover any insurance need that a museum, gallery, or private collector has. We help clients planning an art fair with special events coverage. For dealers, we arrange the insurance coverage for their space. Our commercial property and casualty specialists can take on any or all of a museum’s commercial risks while the fine art team handles the less complex property and liability risks that galleries face.
Several of our specialty practices are handling The New Museum, beginning with our real estate team that placed the construction insurance. We are the insurance broker for the museum’s entire insurance program. Because our view of their operations is so complete, we’ve helped them stay in front of coverage issues that arise with upcoming exhibitions and events. And, we’re able to communicate seamlessly with our colleagues and the museum.
Clients like The New Museum appreciate our full-service approach. It is a one-stop shopping experience in a boutique rather than a department store. [back to list]
Client Resources and Education
Insurance is an industry with laws, regulations, and licensing requirements. Because the fine art market is almost entirely unregulated, we are dedicated to providing our clients with professional development opportunities. Our presentations have ranged from red-hot issues like insuring digital artwork, to organizing the insurance for a traveling exhibition, to explaining the difference between an insurance broker and an underwriter in an introduction to museum insurance.
DeWitt Stern has long been involved with the American Association of Museums and its ancillary regional associations. The AAM’s annual meeting draws thousands of museum and art insurance professionals. (Click [here] to download a valuable guide on museum insurance that we prepared for last year’s conference.) We regularly attend, make presentations, and sponsor three $1,500 fellowships to enable mid-career registrars to attend. These fellowships go toward the costs of registration, airfare, and hotel. With museums cutting budgets and reducing staff, this is a significant contribution.
We also support and are engaged with the International Registrars Symposium, an intimate and interactive information exchange with subjects like safely transporting art and risk management for art, museums, and collections. We continually provide our clients and their staffs with educational resources. Upon being contacted by a group of registrars in the Richmond, Virginia area, DeWitt Stern prepared copies of an insurance handbook and a brochure on building museums. [back to list]
Fine Art Insurance - The Basic Coverages
At last year’s AAM annual conference, DeWitt Stern gave an introductory presentation on museum insurance entitled “Designing Your Insurance Program: Covering Risk from Every Angle.” Click [here] to download a printable version of this comprehensive resource.
A basic museum insurance policy, generally called a Museum Collections and Temporary Loans Coverage Form, covers permanent collections and temporary loans for art museums, history museums, science museums, and historical homes.
Fine art temporary loans insurance protects the property of others on loan to the insured museum, cultural institution, or commercial gallery, or property of the insured that is on loan to others.
Exhibition insurance can be purchased by museums and cultural institutions that arrange and coordinate exhibitions to protect the works of art that are involved, wherever they are displayed and whether they are owned or borrowed. It also provides “in transit” coverage, international coverage, and includes exhibitions involving indemnity programs.
Fine art dealers insurance protects galleries, private dealers, antiques dealers, auction houses, and consultants. The policy covers artwork owned by the insured as well as items in the insured’s care, custody, or control.
Various specialty fine art insurance products protect artists, conservators, and framers. These policies also cover artwork owned by the insured and items in the insured’s care, custody, or control.
Fine art legal liability insurance is included as an enhancement to commercial fine art and museum policies. Coverage protects the insured against legal liability for damage to works the insured has been instructed not to insure.
Private collectors insurance provides coverage for all physical damage (other than typical exclusions) while objects are on display or stored in a client’s home, on loan for public exhibition, or in transit. In addition to fine art, coverage is available for private collections of coins, books, historical artifacts, ceramics, fine wines, jewelry, furs, yachts, and classic automobiles.
Corporate fine art insurance protects collections while on the corporate premises or on loan to others and while in transit.
Fine art packers and shippers insurance allows packers and shippers to offer all risk coverage for their client’s artwork while in transit or in their storage facility. It also covers packers and shippers in the event that they are held legally liable for those artworks that they are not insuring.
Other coverages: Musical instrument insurance; auction house insurance; conservation studios insurance; directors and officers liability insurance coverage for museums; art warehouse insurance; warehouses and packing facilities insurance. [back to list]
For more information, please contact:
- Steven Pincus (NY) 212-297-1421 - spincus@dewittstern.com
- LeConte Moore (NY) 212-297-1486 - cmoore@dewittstern.com
- Valerie Smith (IL) 312-819-6821 - vsmith@dewittstern.com
- Maureen O'Brien (CA) 818-623-5446 - mobrien@dewittstern.com
- Robert DeGraves (CA) 415-677-6008 - rdegraves@dewittstern.com
- Marilyn Quinlan (CA) 415-677-6003 - mquinlan@dewittstern.com
New Rule on Cargo is Shaking up Art World
A New York Times Article about the new Transportation Security Administration regulations and how they will affect art shipments. DeWitt Stern's January seminar is mentioned.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/arts/design/13transport.html
As presented during the session Designing Your Insurance Program: Covering Risk from Every Angle at AAM Annual Meeting 2008 - Denver, CO - click on the title for an electronic copy of the Handbook
Fine Art Insurance Insider
DeWitt Stern’s bi-monthly newsletter, your source for insurance issues affecting the art community.
