If you have smoke damaged collectibles, do
you want the same company who cleans your drapes and sofa to take a mop to your
heirlooms, art collection and antiques? Check out this short educational video
in this article.
While some structures will be
directly affected by the heat and flames, many more are affected by the smoke
and ask. If you have smoke damaged contents, do you want the same company who
cleans your drapes and sofa to take a mop to your heirlooms, art collection and
antiques? Check out this short educational video in this article.
You need help settling the
claim for smoke damaged art,
antiques and collectibles restoration after a house fire or wildfires. We have
done evaluations and written proposals for disaster response companies and
insurance claim adjusters for many hundreds of homeowners just during the last
couple of years.
The video below shows an
example of an heirloom painting that was declared a complete loss and a
complicated collectible, near and dear to the family, that would have
perpetuated health issues.
3 Valuable Tips
Expert, professional help to
take care of smoke
damaged paintings, art and antiques will save you tons of $
and distress. Take the coaching to heart and plan ahead to avoid bigger
problems.
1st Story (Take
note if you live in a condo or have art located in a business)
After the fire, a new roof on
the old building was required. This obviously affected everyone under the roof.
Even though the artwork in question next door to the fire was not damaged in
the fire, the clean up and repairs were going to impact the art gallery. As the
landlord and roofing company planned the work, it was clear they had no idea
about protecting artwork or the value… and therefore the potential liability. (1st tip)
It was the responsibility of the lessee to inform them of the precautions that
needed to be taken!! In this case, the gallery owner had an art
conservator that he knew and he related the detailed instructions and
precautions to the roofing company… who ignored him. The response was, “This
isn’t our first rodeo, we’ve done this before and know what we are doing.”
Fortunately, the gallery owner did not back down and read the “riot act” to
him, let him know he was going to be liable and related the dialog to the
landlord. This up front dialog with all concerned (and a threatened
law suit up front), saved the gallery owner the cost of a massive clean up when
the roofing project “didn’t go the way the roofing company thought” which was a
$25K bill plus reimbursement for downtime. (2nd tip)
A specialized professional in the gallery owner’s pocket gave him credibility.
2nd Story
Just this morning, as I was
writing this article, I got a phone call from a gallery in New York (I’m in
CA). The fire next door to him smoked his inventory badly. He got lucky and was
being assisted by the disaster response company, ServPro who had declined to
handle and clean the artwork admitting that the liability was too high and that
artwork is not within their training. Interestingly, when a company says this
to a client, it inspires the client to believe that the contractor tells him
the truth and can be trusted! (Tips #3) The gallery owner was doing
exactly the right thing by searching out a professional art conservator with
disaster response experience. The art conservator that
he knew didn’t know anything about disaster response (handling lots of objects
(possibly damaged) all at once which includes packing, safe handling, safe
storage practices and may include handling items exposed to toxic materials).
In our phone conversation I referred him to the website for the American
Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) which has a
referral program for someone closest to him.
We hope this article has given
you the confidence to call our office to ask you questions and get some expert
coaching.
Scott M. Haskins, Oriana
Montemurro, Virginia Panizzon Art Conservators
Andrew Jacobs, Disaster
Response Service Coordinator
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