Choosing the right art storage facility for you and your collection is critical to the health and wellness of your artwork—and your piece of mind. It is worth every minute you spend researching and speaking to the right partner to entrust with your collection. Here are a few points to consider as you search:

#1 Look for a partner that you trust

Art is an intimate, personal experience, and you’ll want to find a trusted partner that provides the level of attention and breadth of services that you and your collection require. The storage facility is extremely important. And at the end of the day, you will want an art services company that is experienced, responsive and above all, accountable. Meet the management team and ask if they are members of ICEFAT, the global elite among art service providers.

“What is best for this particular piece of art?” is the mantra that SRI was founded on, and the guiding principle that drives the business. With nearly 20 years of experience in fine art storage, the SRI team goes the extra mile to provide clients with personalized support. Each client has a dedicated staff member that serves as a concierge to them and their collection, knows their collection, and handles all needs discretely and professionally.

#2 Tour the facility

Art storage facilities come in all shapes and sizes and offer a variety of options. You should consider the unique needs of your collection, including:

• Does your collection require temperature or climate control?
• Do your pieces require high ceilings?
• Do you want a private vault, managed vault or managed storage?
• Do you have an active collection that you access frequently or could you consider deep storage in a more remote location?
• Does your registrar require an integrated inventory management system?
• Does the facility operate a Global Rick Evaluated warehouse?

You should request a detailed facility report from your storage partner. And, it is always best to take a tour of the facility to see for yourself.

With more than 100,000-square-feet of storage space in and around New York City, SRI knows about art storage facilities. All of SRI’s locations offer museum-grade, stable climate control systems to preserve the integrity of art. We feature an in-house inventory system that scans, labels, and barcodes your work as soon as we take possession. We can track the location of any artwork at any point in time and provide a history of the artwork’s movement during its entire stay in our facilities. The newest SRI location boasts 20-foot high ceilings and two trailer-sized indoor loading docks. That makes for a weatherproof zone for moving artwork in and out of storage.

#3 Sweat the security details  

The safety and security of client collections are paramount both within the storage facility and while in transit. Experienced, professional art service companies are always several steps ahead looking and mitigating security risks before they happen.

SRI’s art warehouses have museum-grade security systems with 24-hour surveillance and no public access points. A proprietary inventory management system is used to track every piece of artwork in the facilities. Per professional protocol, there are always two art handlers on each job to ensure that each piece is supported correctly and remains safe during transitions. In addition, SRI’s fleet is comprised exclusively of alarmed, climate-controlled trucks with turn-by-turn GPS tracking that monitors where artwork is every moment that it’s in transit.

#4 Can you do business there?

Often artists, curators and collectors require a space to work with their collection or discreetly show work to potential buyers. Make sure that your storage facility has a private viewing room on-site to avoid additional movement of your artwork.

SRI’s private viewing rooms function as on-site gallery space for inventory management, photography, and exhibition for private sale. Offering installation services, professional lighting, climate and access control, SRI’s private viewing rooms provide space, security and discretion.

#5 Global reach

If your collection moves internationally, make sure your art storage partner has global capabilities as well as trusted partners to properly receive, report and install artwork around the world.

SRI is a member of the esteemed International Convention of Exhibition and Fine Art Transporters (ICEFAT), which is comprised of 71 of the finest art transportation companies in the world. Members are held up to the highest standards of excellence, accountability, and credibility, and vetted by ICEFAT, to ensure a seamless process of shipping your artwork around the world.

Contact us to learn more about SRI’s fine art services for your collection.