Cadogan Tate Fine Art Handling & Transportation Services

Cadogan Tate is the world’s foremost expert in handling fine art, design and antiques. fine art and antique handler. We offer both domestic and international art transport, and we specialise in formulating custom art crating and art packing services designed around each piece we handle.

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Why Trust Cadogan Tate with Your Fine Art?

Cadogan Tate’s expertise in art logistics—packing, storing, storing and delivering the world’s most valuable fine art—has been accumulated over nearly five decades of operation. We have moved everything from small, exquisitely delicate items to monumental sculptural works that weigh several tons, we have liaised with customs regimes and transport providers in every corner of the globe, and our wealth of experience means that you can be sure that we know exactly how to get your artwork where it needs to be, safely and punctually.

Most importantly, we treat your precious artworks with just as much care as you do. We only employ people who have a deep understanding of their individual field, and the ongoing training and career development we offer ensures that they remain at the pinnacle of their respective crafts. Crucially, our people also understand the pieces with which they are entrusted. Many are artists themselves, and they work with a degree of thought and care that comes only with both experience and a deep love for art.

Fine Art and Antique Handling Services

Cadogan Tate’s fine art transport and handling service is unique in that we are able to manage each and every step of the art shipping process, and also to ensure that the work for each of those steps is carried out by our highly-trained expert technicians. 

Each move is planned and overseen by a project manager, who is matched to the project depending on their individual experience and expertise. Coordinating the project under the management of a single person allows for ensuring that the entire move proceeds smoothly and efficiently, while also providing the client with a single point of contact throughout.

Once the move is planned, the project manager engages and liaises with specialist staff. These technicians build whatever custom creatine is necessary, place the piece carefully into its protective packing, move it to safe storage for as long as required; and then transport it securely to its final destination. If your artwork requires installation once it arrives, we can also consult on, or manage, that process. 

Expert Packing and Custom Crating Solutions

One of the reasons for Cadogan Tate’s reputation as the world’s premier fine art handler is our specialisation in custom crating solutions. Each of our crates is designed to accommodate an individual work of art and protect it from any potential damage while in transit—and to do so in the most cost-effective manner possible. We believe that no artwork is too difficult to move, and we relish a challenge. 

For paintings and other flat, wall-hung pieces, we generally construct bespoke crates in which the piece is mounted into a custom-built protective frame, which is itself then mounted into a crate. This ensures nothing ever touches the actual artwork. For free-standing and other irregularly shaped pieces, the nature of the crating will depend on the weight, value and fragility of the item.

We are also able to accommodate the specialised requirements of museums, galleries and other clients who maintain specifications about the crating they require. From museum specifications that require gaskets and water seals to double-crated, padded crates designed to survive anything short of an act of God, we have built crating solutions to the most stringent requirements, and we can ensure that any crating solution we formulate meets any and every client specification. 

Secure Fine Art Storage Facilities

An artwork often requires storage at some point on its journey. Cadogan Tate offers a suite of art storage solutions, and regardless of whether a piece requires a temporary stop en route to a final destination or longer-term storage, every piece of artwork in our care is housed at one of our global network of storage facilities. 

Every one of these facilities is equipped with state-of-the-art, AAA-rated systems for security, fire protection and climate control, as well as meeting any and all further requirements dictated by their location. Within these facilities, we offer a variety of storage plans, from fully climate-controlled private vaults to shared rack storage. Further details on individual facilities are available in our facility reports.

Careful and Secure Art Transport

Art is at its most vulnerable during transportation, and we take extra care to make sure it comes to no harm while in transit. Where possible, we make sure that transport is handled in-house: we maintain an 85-vehicle strong fleet of our own trucks and vans that operates throughout the continental USA, and we operate regular shuttles between New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, and Dallas. If we need to engage external transport, we ensure it comes from a list of vetted, reliable service providers.

Where a piece needs to be moved by air or sea, we liaise with transport providers and brokers to keep costs at a minimum without compromising on security. If a piece is crossing international borders, we’ll liaise with customs brokers, and we’ll incorporate individual jurisdictions’ requirements into both our timelines and our costs. Along with our seven US locations, we have offices in London, Paris and the Côte d’Azur, and our network of contacts and trusted service providers extends to every corner of the globe. Regardless of how or where a piece travels, we ensure it gets to where it needs to be, when it needs to be there.

For the highest-value pieces, we go above and beyond to make sure our eyes are on the work for every second of the transportation process: if required, we can arrange for one of our staff to accompany the piece at all times. All our staff are carefully vetted and trained to ensure they understand the importance of privacy and discretion when dealing with high-value artworks and/or high-value clients.

FAQs: Everything You Need to Know about Cadogan Tate Art Handling

Do you provide insurance?

We can provide full value protection, yes, which is based on the value of the object/artwork. This would cover everything from damages to total loss. If you’re able to supply us with more information on the piece itself as well as the value, I can send you our charges for full value protection.

Do you handle large/oversized pieces? Do you provide specialist lifting services and/or rigging?

We offer various services related to monumental pieces, yes. Our teams have the ability to set up gantry equipment, scaffolding for hard to access locations on site, and allow us to handle overweight objects for collections, deliveries and installations. We have expertise to perform site visits in preparation for projects like this scoping each unique location for access limitations/potential restrictions (e.g. possible freight elevator weight capacities, whether pieces can fit through a hallway, the type of floor protection that may be needed to accommodate a piece). Our teams have worked with crane services for pieces that have needed to be brought into a building through a window or roof, too so there is nothing we can’t accomplish.

What types of training/qualifications does your team have?

Our teams go through an in-depth training that correspond to several Standard Operating Procedures for each individual client that navigates them through the importance of art handling and the objects they come in contact with. We are a trusted vendor for the biggest auction houses around the globe and have done work involving some of the largest artistic foundations of the art world. Guided by the very specific nature of an artwork or object, our team makes their assessments on site in real time with the best materials for which the piece requires with the safety of the artwork as their number one priority.

Get in Touch: Start Your Art Handling Journey with Cadogan Tate

If you’d like to discuss a potential move or schedule a consultation, you make an enquiry right here.

 

Fine Art Shipping

“The quote was reasonable, the scheduling and art handling crew were beyond exceptional.

―Shawna Surrelle, Art Basel Miami
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