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NO
2– 2010
HIGHEST STANDARDS IN FINE ART SHIPPING
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IF
THIS IS VENICE IT MUST BE GLASSINA
With
a nod to Cordelia Rose and her invaluable handbook Courierspeak,
ICEFAT is preparing a multi-lingual reference database of commonly
used and required archival and packing materials.
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The
following accolade is entirely fabricated but could be a reality after
the launch of the
international table of packing materials. All names are fictitious
and no animals were harmed in
the making of this flagrant mendacity.
Dearest ICEFAT Members,
I am a registrar for an internationally obscure museum with exacting
requirements. We are based
in a remote corner of the Italian region of Marche. I wanted to thank
you from the bottom of
my heart for providing a valuable resource to my institution. We had
a very important loan in
Argentina and I was able to specify the precise materials needed for
the packing of the objects
by utilizing your INTERNATIONAL TABLE OF PACKING MATERIALS. I remember
there was
a time when we would ask for museum-quality packing and we got a wooden
box reeking of
formaldehyde with paintings wrapped in glassina. We specified Melinex,
but did not know the
word in English. The rubbish they gave us was exposed to moisture
because they also did not
insulate the crate with the requested alluminio polite nator and the
glassina was affected by
becoming wrinkled and abrasive like sandpaper. Accidente! What a disaster!
Now, I refer to your
convenient database and I get exactly what I ask for. Keep up the
good work!
Yours truly,
Dott.ssa Salvatrice Inverosimile
Several years ago Tim Polishook, of Ship/Art International (San Francisco),
in collaboration with
other interested ICEFAT members, chaired a session on the archival
materials specific to our
industry at our Convention in Barcelona in 2004. The objective of
this session was to create
standards for all ICEFAT member companies. One of the results was
a glossary of packing and
crating materials. I noticed some grumblings from non-US agents at
the sessions with remarks that
the names of many of these products were unknown to them in their
countries. So, in an attempt to
stave off a label of provincialism or US-centrism, we are reaching
out to our members to get some
equivalents for the terminology. You can find a link to the beginnings
of our database at
www.icefat.org/database
As this is an on-going process, I would be very happy to hear from
all readers, especially non-
ICEFAT ones, with suggestions for improving this database. Eventually,
we will have many more
languages covered and links to each product that will give resources
for the acquisition of the
material and its best application. This is in no way a complete list
of available hi-tech archival
materials, you can expect some heated debate about which is best.
A little bit of information is
a dangerous thing. I expect we’ll get some incendiary emails
from PACIN as well as crate-geeks
world-wide…but we ICEFAT agents welcome the input!
I hope this is just the beginning of a much needed and long awaited
dialogue on improving
standards and raising best practices globally. I would like to thank
the following art handling
professionals for working on translations from the (US) English: |
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- Argentina
– Ruben Mendez of Delmiro Mendez
- Australia
– Simon Hartas of TED, a subsidiary of International Art
Services
- Germany
– Klaus Hillmann of Tandem
- Greece
– George Beriketis of Orphee Beinoglou
- Italy
– Fabiano Panzironi of Panzironi / Apice
- Spain
– Tania Santiago of Edict
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Jonathan
Schwartz
Atelier 4, New York
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