IcefatIcefat
  • ABOUT US
  • MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY
  • SERVICES
  • NEWS
  • CONTACT US
  • MEMBER
    SIGN-IN
Search
iceartworld2025-04-30T07:42:16+00:00
  • 03.05.23

How ICEFAT Has Set the Standards for Safety, Security and Staffing

  • Company News
ICEFAT Member: Crown Fine Art
Back in 2017, art world eyebrows were raised when a thief absconded with $12 million worth of paintings from a storage unit in Queens, New York. Even more shocking was the owner’s admission that he had last checked his stored collection the previous October and only discovered the theft when he returned in June the following year. The thief got away with 22 works of art and seven months of lead time before the robbery came to light. It is unfathomable to those of us in the industry that a collector would store artworks of such value in a high-risk facility. Read on to discover how the ICEFAT Standards would have prevented such a loss.
ICEFAT Member: Crozier Fine Arts

Safety and security

ICEFAT’s Standards require rigorous security procedures of its members, ensuring that they demonstrate robust building security features. These include an alarm activation response plan, panic buttons, CCTV across all access points and external protection against ramming raids. The Standards ensure that access to storage areas is restricted to permitted individuals, and that anybody entering the facility – whether employee or visitor – is identified through an authorization process.

ICEFAT Member: Maurice Ward Art Handling

Integrity, confidentiality and accountability

It is not just the protection of the works of art that concern our members, but the sensitive information around those who own them. Inevitably, works of high cultural or historic value can be found in the collections of high-profile individuals or institutions, and data security can be as important to these people and institutions as the works of art themselves. Passwords, access to hardware and data back-up are all covered by ICEFAT’s Standards ensuring critical or sensitive information is therefore protected.
In the cited case study there appears to have been no inventory system to ensure that security and logistics professionals monitor access to the artworks in question. ICEFAT members have systems that track receipt, location and dispatch of all items stored or passing through. Procedures are equally robust for items in transit; tracking devices, alarm systems and means of communication with the company are minimum requirements. Collectively, this means that a seven-month gap between the theft and its discovery could never have happened.
ICEFAT Member: Maurice Ward Art Handling

People first

Yet automated security systems and procedures can only protect up to a point. In 2020, a non-ICEFAT storage facility reported a theft in Illinois that was found to have been facilitated by an employee acting as a lookout. Our members’ success and trustworthiness comes from deep interpersonal relationships forged over many years. It stands to reason that our clients place their trust in the teams of professionals employed by our members. ICEFAT members have a vigorous human resources protocol and thorough recruitment protocol; our Standards require robust candidate screening and a detailed written procedure for recruitment, training and promotion to minimize the risk of internal issues.
It is the thorough nature of ICEFAT’s Standards that sets our members apart from other art logistics providers. ICEFAT members are subject to regular audits of business processes and procedures by the global professional services giant, EY (formerly Ernst & Young).
BACK TO ALL ARTICLES

Related Posts

Growing the ICEFAT Family

Family, legacy, passion, pride. While these are not terms that would usually be associated with a global industry organisation,... read more

Fine Art Partnerships Response to the Australian Bushfire Crisis of early 2020

With more than 25% of Australia’s forests burned to date across the country’s catastrophic bushfire season, the total area... read more

The Impossible Became Possible: Saving the Treasures of Notre Dame

Our global community of art shippers were united in shock and sadness at the awful events of the Notre... read more

ICEFAT gives back

As well as offering highly reliable, efficient services and running commercially successful businesses, ICEFAT members are involved in myriad... read more

Dublin’s Dead Zoo Decant – Part 1

Inside the National Museum of Ireland – Natural HistoryThey say what goes up must come down, and museum displays... read more

Mummies, museums and (birthday) milestones: Our multi-faceted world of fine art shipping for special occasions

Technicians from Gander & White Shipping inspect one of the small Mummies from the Bolton Museum, UK at the... read more

ICEFAT In Asia

Earlier this year, Art Basel Hong Kong 2019 shone a light on the art market in Asia and the... read more

ICEFAT Covid Aftermath: Part 3

In the third and final part of our report on ICEFAT’s members’ responses to the Covid-19 pandemic, we discuss... read more

Middle East Spotlight

Our international membership of 78 of the top fine art shippers across the globe provides a local presence for... read more

Moving a Masterpiece to Milan!

Moving a Masterpiece to Milan! Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper. Universally recognised – renowned masterpiece – countlessly reproduced – it’s the... read more
EXPERIENCED. TRUSTED. ACCOUNTABLE.

SIGN-UP AND STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE ICEFAT NEWSLETTER

Facebook Linkedin Instagram
© 2025 ICEFAT. All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy | Geneva, Switzerland
  • ABOUT US
  • MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY
  • SERVICES
  • NEWS
  • CONTACT US