How to pack artwork for moving

Plastic and bubble wrap. Plastic against paint traps moisture and, in a warm truck, can bond to a varnish or an acrylic surface. Bubble wrap presses a pattern into anything soft. Glassine or acid-free tissue goes against the surface first, then a rigid barrier across the face, then padding outside that. The rule is that the padding protects the barrier and the barrier protects the work.

When it is too large to stand inside a carton without flexing, when its value would make a loss serious, when the surface is unstable, or when the piece is going into long storage or a shared load. A crate is a rigid wooden box built to the piece, and its point is that nothing else in the truck can ever press on it. Ask your mover before packing day, since crates are built to measure.

All support goes to the stretcher bars around the edge and none to the canvas itself, which is a drum head and dents from the back as easily as the front. Card is cut slightly larger than the frame and fixed to the stretcher edges, front and back, so the two sheets bridge across the canvas without touching it. The piece then stands on its edge, never flat.

Wrap the projecting parts first, since arms, spouts and thin sections are what break, then support the mass so the whole piece cannot shift. A sculpture is packed in a box that fits it closely with dense padding beneath it, so the weight sits on cushioning rather than on cardboard. Heavy stone or bronze pieces are crated, because a heavy object in a carton eventually goes through the carton.

Photograph each work front and back before it is wrapped, including any existing damage, and keep the photographs with your inventory. A record made before packing is the only way to tell later whether a mark is new. If a piece is genuinely valuable, ask the carrier what its liability covers, since standard released-value coverage on a household shipment is not written around single high-value items.

Two things do most of the damage, and neither is impact. The first is plastic against a finished surface in heat. The second is storage: attics, garages and unconditioned units swing between hot and damp, and paper cockles, canvas slackens and tightens, and frames open at the joints. Artwork in storage belongs in a climate-controlled space, standing upright and off the floor.