Insuring and protecting valuable artwork

The importance of appraisals and insuring your assets inside and outside your home, including art, is important, given art is seen as more of an asset every year.

Marlissa Gardner, the owner of Emillions Art, said the number one mistake clients make is skipping insurance regarding art. And that is a mistake that could cost the owner of the piece of art a lot of money.

Given this, it’s worth protecting your artwork, at the very least, as a safety precaution.

“The biggest mistake I see people, especially older clients, oh, I don’t need that insurance, so I don’t need that insurance I’ve been doing this for years I don’t need it, and then something like this happens,” Gardner said.

Gardner is talking about Hurricane Ian and said collectors should consider their options, even prepare to protect their art.

“If you’re going to leave town and it is really valuable and sentimental to you to move it, especially during storm season during hurricane season,” Gardner said.

Jenniffer Ross owns Art Peritus, she has clients in Fort Myers and Captiva. Right before the storm hit, she had just appraised the collection in Fort Myers.

“We literally just a couple months ago went in and did a full inventory of everything in that home and other homes, and we’re still processing the appraisal report because they have multiple homes, but now we have that data, so even if things were washed away we have photographic evidence to prove that this piece was in this room,” Ross said.

Gardner said evaluating and appraising art is something collectors should do regularly.

“I would recommend every year but at least every two years, especially you know your insurance adjusters are going to come in they’re going to take the last appraisal that was given they are going to look at fair market value, which might have dropped so you wanna make sure that you get what you pay for,” Gardner said.

For example, The Price of Seduction is a piece of art with a price tag in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Some pieces may be worth more than some peoples homes and it clearly demonstrates the importance of taking care of and insuring your art for safety.

Marlissa also suggests moving art to either a vault or donating it to a museum as an alternative to protect those pieces.