If you are a collector of fine art, or even if you are just a keen amateur who has acquired a collection of items over time, you’ll need to make sure that they are all insured correctly. It’s amazing how much money pieces of art can be worth and if you have a large collection making sure that each piece is valued correctly and appropriately insured is paramount.
Specialist companies exist who can provide insurance cover for individual pieces of fine art including items such as paintings, sculptures, ceramics, and glassware. And if you choose a specialist insurance provider you’ll be safe in the knowledge that they will tailor the insurance to your specific collection.
Things you’ll need to make sure are in place or things which will need to be agreed upon when insuring ceramics include:
o Accidental damage cover
o Loss or theft of art cover
o Defective title cover
o Excess level
o Art loss register addition if items are stolen
o Partial loss or damage cover
o New purchase cover
If you make sure that your piece of art is insured in accordance with an expert valuation it means that it will be covered for a pre-agreed amount so there is no ambiguity between the insurer and the owner if the tem is damaged or stolen. This will also mean that the item should be covered if the item is devalued in any way following a restoration, which is commonly not something offered by standard household insurance policies.
Some people mighty only have one or two pieces of fine art, such as ceramic pieces, and thus feel they hold insufficient value to be considered for separate fine art insurance but this is not the case. Even a couple of pieces of art warrants this type of specialist cover as household insurance may not provide adequate cover or any cover at all.
Upgrades to standard fine art insurance include ‘pairs and sets’ insurance. This insurance provides cover if one item of a pair or set is damaged or stolen. The undamaged items will now hold a significantly lower value if the set or pair no longer exists, but if you are correctly covered you can surrender the undamaged pieces and still get the full amount the items were insured for when they were complete. It is also often possible to buy back undamaged items as single items from the insurer after the claim has been settled.
It doesn’t matter if you are a collector of Wedgewood, Portmeirion china or a lover of Giotto di Bondone masterpieces; you need to make sure you have adequate insurance cover in place.
Harvey Gershwin is a collector of fine art, he wrote this article on fine art insurance on behalf of www.chinepresentations.net.