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Friday, January 15, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
Arts & Entertainment
Jacque Janssen, arts/features editor
Art insurance selling at a premium
Spencer Museum copes with high rates
By Elaine Woodford Kansan staff writer
Kansan staff write
Protecting priceless works of art requires more than silent alarms and watchful security guards.
Insurance increasingly has become an expensive necessity
For more than 200 years, museums, galleries and private owners have purchased insurance policies to protect valuable collections from damage.
The roots of art insurance are quite old, according to information from the National Association of Art Museum directors.
In the 1400s, investors loaned sea captains money for voyages, which was repayable with interest on the successful completion of the trip. If the voyage failed because of a disaster at sea, the loans were canceled. But investors used the interest earned from successful voyages to pay off their losses, in effect creating the counterpart of today's insurance premiums.
Janet Dreiling, registrar for the Spencer Museum of Art, said that during the past two to three years, premium rates for the museum's collections and exhibitions had doubled.
She said that the increase was due to the fact that more art work was being transported and that insurance premiums were increasing overall.
"We hope that the rates will level off in the future," she said.
The higher insurance rates and the increased value of artwork have affected the number of exhibitions from other institutions coming to the museum as well as the number of exhibitions the museum rents to other galleries.
"It does affect us. The higher insurance rates take up a larger amount of our budget. To compensate, we raise the rates we charge
other museums to rent our shows," Dreiling said.
Dreiling also said that the rising costs gradually affected the art museum. The results of this problem would be more noticeable at larger museums that have the funds to house bigger exhibitions such as the King Tut exhibition, which would cost between $50,000 to $60,000. The art museum is affected, she said, but on a much less noticeable scale.
Museums and private owners of paintings, drawings, sculptures and other rare articles can obtain broad protection policies, similar to homeowner's insurance. But these policies do not cover artwork during travel, which is when artwork is most likely to be damaged, Dreiling said.
However, the rates for traveling in insurance are very high
"The major contributing factor in damaging art work is travel." Dreiling said "More museums aren't able to lend exhibitions because of the high value of the artwork."
She said that museums increased restrictions and the cost of lending art work if it could be easily damaged. Some pieces, especially paintings on wood panels and glass objects, are almost never lent because of the strong possibility of damage.
Because of the care that must be taken to transport valuable art, the cost of shipping it is extremely expensive. Dreiling said. The art museum shipped pieces by air in crates, packed well to avoid
breakage, she said.
The crates are specially constructed by Cotter Mitchell, who is employed by the museum to make the crates. Mitchell also helps pack crates and makes other displays.
"Crate-making is almost an art within itself." Dreiling said.
Many museums have adopted more secure methods for transporting pieces of artwork.
Small pieces can be hand delivered by currier to the destination or curators can accompany the exhibition to each individual museum on the tour.
"On the last day of the show, a fly somehow got into the space between the scroll and the plexiglass. Someone thought it would be funny to smash the fly and it was crushed into the silk scroll, staining the silk and the background. We filed an insurance claim after that incident," she said.
Despite the care taken in preparing the exhibition for travel. Dreiling said, there's only so much museums can do to avoid damage.
"Two years ago, we sent our Japanese Ghosts and Demons to the west coast. There were several scrolls, which were protected by placing a sheet of plexiglass over the scroll, allowing for a few inches between the plexiglass and the scroll.
Dreiling said mishaps still happened even with the most careful planning.
Committee is seeking museum director
By a Kansan reporter
The search for a new director for the Spencer Museum of Art might be nearing an end, said Doug Tilghman, acting director of the museum.
The position has remained vacant since March of last year, when director Jay Gates resigned to become director of the Seattle Art Museum. At that time, a 12-member committee was appointed by Del Brinkman, vice chancellor for academic affairs, to choose a replacement.
Tighman said that the committee reviewed more than 30 applications and received several nominations from departments within the University, but a permanent replacement still hasn't been found.
"This has been going on long enough, and I certainly hope we will be able to select someone very soon, within one or two months," he said.
The committee is now interviewing six applicants, all from out of state, he said.
There also is an opening in the curatorial department. Tilghman said the museum was looking for a curator of Western art, who would work with European and American paintings, sculpture and decorative work.
Tighman said that he planned to recruit for the curatorial position at the College Art Association meeting in February.
The curator of photography, Thomas W. Southall, has taken a one-year leave of absence to become curator at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. Diana Gaston, Columbia, Mo., graduate student in art history, will work in the photography office during his absence.
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