Art insurance

Private collectors wish to preserve the artistic, historical and financial values of their olgects and artworks. With the dramatic increase in monetary value of modem art since 2000, art insurance companies are also concerned with the short useful lifetime of plastics and the limited options for their conservation today. In January 2003 AXA Art Insurance funded a research laboratory and research into the conservation and restoration of modem plastic furniture at the Vitra Design Museum in Germany (Albus et al., 2007). Artists are also stakeholders in the conservation of their own and their feUow professionals works. The durability of an artwork, as well as providing a guarantee for the collector, affects the artist s reputation and immortality (Hummelen, 1999). Durability is affected by artists selection of appropriate materials and techniques. The artist David Hockney is credited with saying Love will decide what is kept, and science will decide how it is kept (Corzo, 1999). 

This chapter will first present the options which are widely used today for slowing the rate of degradation of plastics (inhihitive conservation) and then those for invasively stabilizing and strengthening them (interventive conservation). Interventive treatments are used hy private dealers, collectors and art insurance companies to maintain the commercial value and original appearance of plastics artworks. Some interventive treatments are considered restoration rather than conservation. 

Most museum administrators, when they think of insurance at all, think in terms of coverage for their collections and loan items. Fine arts insurance, however, is just one part of the total insurance coverage a museum should carry. Coverage should include ... 

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See also in sourсe #XX -- [ ]

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