Transporting paintings from Vancouver to Massachusetts
August 18, 2016 6:42 PM   Subscribe

What's the best and most cost-effective way to ship paintings from Vancouver to Massachusetts, preferably without traveling to Vancouver?

Asking for a friend, who I'll call "John."

ABOUT JOHN & THE SITUATION:
John lives in Massachusetts. His father, an artist, passed away recently and left some of his best paintings in a storage facility in Vancouver. We do not know how many paintings there are, but John estimates ten. He wants those paintings back in his possession. While they do not have high market value, they have very high value to him. John does not own the storage unit, but the person who does has written that the paintings are his and that she will give him access when he's ready.

ISSUES:
(1) Budget - John is a student, so he's looking for the most cost-effective and time-efficient solution possible.
(2) Lack of Knowledge About Vancouver - John does not know what services are available to help him move these paintings to his home in Massachusetts.
(3) Lack of Artists' Knowledge - John does not know how to package paintings or unframe any that may be framed.

OPTIONS:
(1) John has considered traveling to Vancouver to do the job himself.
This may be the easiest solution, but it also seems the most expensive and time-consuming. He would have to buy plane tickets, get a hotel, rent a car, buy whatever tools he would potentially need to unframe paintings, and ship them to Massachusetts.
(2) Hire somebody in Vancouver to do the job.
This is John's preferred solution, but he does not know where to get someone trustworthy to do the job. We have looked into services like TaskRabbit to do the job, but we have not found any that operate in Vancouver.
** Not an option: John does not want to ask the owner of the storage unit to send the paintings because of some interpersonal tensions.

What do you suggest John do? What services might John be able to use to get the paintings shipped without traveling to Vancouver (option 2)?
posted by melancholyplay to Human Relations (3 answers total)
 
A fine art shipping company could handle this, but it probably won't be cheap. He may be able to get a referral from a frame shop in Vancouver if he can't find one online.
posted by jimw at 6:56 PM on August 18, 2016


I wonder if you could get a vancouver moving company to do this. There are ones that offer services to do all the packing and move your house's contents -- I would guess they could do storage units as well. Just communicate with them that all that's in the unit is these paintings and they'd need to be treated as fragile items.
posted by cgg at 7:05 PM on August 18, 2016


Best answer: I worked for years at one of the nations top auction houses doing shipping. Don't unframe them and put cardboard between them. sheets of cardboard dividing manet and picasso and warhol, that's what the back room of a high end auction house looks like.

A good moving company can do this. Tell them they are fragile and that they need to packed upright.

Fine art/specialty movers are not generally much better and cost a fortune.
posted by French Fry at 9:40 AM on August 19, 2016


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