International carriers, Caution! please
I am about to relate a tale, a tale that revolves around the life of an artist, and a huge multinational transport giant.
In the first instance, the artist who resides in Spain arranged with his representing gallery in the USA to take part in an exhibition of his work, the date for the exhibition Vernissage was to be 28th May, 2010 running until August 15th.
Packing, moving and storing fine arts and antiques is one of the most important steps for artists.
The artist now had a plan, and a space in a gallery to show his new work, happily he left the US and returned to Europe, this was in November of 2009.
The pieces were wrapped and packed and sent with the huge multinational carrier, a company who the artist had worked with on several previous occasions.
Upon arrival in Connecticut the box was unpacked, to the dismay of the gallerist, 9 of the 13 were broken, and at least 3 were smashed to pieces, none were fit to exhibit, time was short, and the show was cancelled.
The total resale value of these goods was in the region of $7000, not a great deal for so much effort, but what we must not forget is the enormous potential this exhibition held for both the gallery and the artist, the gallery was bringing back a British artist for the second time, the artist was about to hold one of the most important show’s of his career, his breakthrough into the American market.
The gallerist was of course very upset, and for many reasons, a lot of money had been spent by the gallery on promotion of the event, photo’s, videos, catalogues, web, and real time art publications, plus all the invited guests who were travelling from across the corners of the US, and because of the obvious bad feelings developed and the otherwise excellent relationship between the two was destroyed.
The artist, both powerless and frustrated at being so far away, after 5 months of spending energy, the cost of the materials, the international transport, and the fact that all of his creations were reduced to rubble, was forced to lick his wounds, he thanked heaven that he had used a reputable company, a company with years of experience, and one that would be shocked, horrified, and angry to find that their staff treated their clients belongings in such a shoddy way, we are not talking about an accidental droppage, or an unfortunate bump, no! the extent, and the nature of the damage caused indicates very clearly that there was not an ounce of finesse, no care whatsoever, just a brutal disregard and bad workmanship, it would be almost impossible to cause this much destruction should you deliberately try.
The artist contacted the said carriers in early May 2010, and to bring an end to this sad tale, after nearly three months they came up with the miserable offer of 298 GBP, less than the cost of sending, less than the cost of the phone calls, less than the cost of one advertisement, and please dont forget, the artist must now retrieve all the work he has in this gallery, the quote for this alone is more than $1000.
A side note to the above , the artist suggested that if the carriers would at least agree to bring back the broken things free of charge, he would accept their offer, the answer was a flat NO!
No names are mentioned here, not from any kind of fear, but from the fact that the artist still has not received the 298GBPs.
Should you Google the said artist/exhibition/gallery you will get literally hundreds hits about the show, and an idea of how important it all was to be.
The last word from the carriers is that the artist should have insured the goods with them.
Can you believe it? You pay them what they ask to ship your goods, but if you prefer not to have them obliterated by morons, then you should pay extra, this is farcical,ludicrous,and ridiculous, let us pay a price, and they do their job, no more blackmail please.
All the best.
Chris.
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