Art is both a cultural and financial asset, making its physical protection crucial. The Los Angeles wildfires in January 2025 underscored the importance of safeguarding works of art. This wasn’t the first wake-up call for threats to art. For example, Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 flooded New York City’s Chelsea art district, leading to numerous claims for water-damaged artworks in storage. Similarly, in May 2024, a massive fire at London’s Momart art warehouse destroyed valuable sculptures and paintings owned by art dealers, estimated to be worth more than $40 million. Momart faced a lawsuit for negligent art storage, including the lack of a sprinkler system, ultimately settling for tens of millions of dollars in damages to artists and collectors. In 2022 a hurricane struck Naples, Florida, flooding homes and museums and causing irreversible damage to works of art.

Staying Informed about Natural Disasters

Staying informed about storms and other natural disasters is crucial. Anyone who owns art should monitor fire, flood, storm, earthquake and power outage forecasts and be prepared to take emergency action. Apps like Watch Duty, popular during the Los Angeles fires, and Disaster Alert can help monitor risks in your area. Awareness of potential threats to your property is key to preparedness. For instance, in Nantucket, homes along the shore are preparing for rising tides by lifting homes up and back from the beach as the cliffs fall away. While in Miami, if the water rises only six inches the drainage system will be jeopardized, leaving residents at risk of frequent flooding. 

Know What You Have and What It Is Worth

You should prepare an itemized inventory of your art and keep it up to date and accessible in case of emergency. It is recommended that the inventory include when the work was created, when you bought the work, how much you paid for it, from whom you purchased the work, where the work is located, and a high-resolution image of the work.

An important part of maintaining an inventory of your works of art is continually updating the value and condition of each piece. Because the value of art fluctuates, you must have periodic appraisals to be sure your insurance coverage reflects current prices. 

Finding the right appraiser is important. You will want the appraiser to be certified in the specific time period and style of your collection. For example, if you have a 19th-century portrait in oil, you want an appraiser specializing in 19th-century oil paintings. One excellent resource for appraisals is the Winston Art Group, which has a network of certified appraisers. Appraisers consider all value factors, including auction sales, private sales, scarcity, provenance and condition. One caveat is that within the first year of the original sale, the value will be equal to the invoiced amount, but starting in year two, the value can change. Monitoring the artist’s auction results for similar works is a helpful way to estimate the value. Insurance companies may still dispute the value of your claim. 

Create an Emergency Preparedness Plan 

Developing an emergency preparedness plan in advance of a disaster is essential. An emergency preparedness plan will look different for each art collection and for various kinds of natural disasters. You should have different plans based on how much time you have to prepare. Above a certain value, having a custom crate for each work can be a wise expenditure because it makes last minute transportation and storage safer. Generally, crates can be kept in a garage or basement rather than in a climate-controlled facility. However, if your crates are stored at a different location than the art, you might not have time to retrieve them, so you should also have plastic bubble wrap, blankets and cardboard on hand to wrap art for removal on short notice. Having fireproof asbestos blankets is a good idea if your art is in a fire zone. 

You should also have a contact at an art storage facility, such as Crozier Fine Arts or Cadogan Tate. It’s important that you do advance research and check out art storage facilities and art shippers near you and develop a relationship with a local contact so you can act quickly if disaster strikes. Typically, art storage facilities cluster around airports, but there are often smaller storage facilities in cities. For example, Crozier has a small facility on Manhattan’s lower west side, convenient to the Chelsea galleries, as well facilities on Long Island and near the various airports. Figuring this out in advance will make it easier to make wise decisions. No matter where you are, trees can come down, roofs may be damaged and pipes may burst. Thus, even if you are not near a flood zone or an area prone to natural disasters, it is still advisable to have an emergency preparedness plan. 

Simon de Burgh Codrington, a fine arts specialist, anticipates the losses from the recent LA fires to be more devastating than Hurricane Sandy was to the art world. However, some well-prepared art dealers and museums were able to evacuate their collections successfully. The Chief Executive of the Getty Museum in the Pacific Palisades noted that the institution had been preparing for a fire emergency long before the 2025 Palisades fire. The art was not evacuated, but low-hanging trees had been trimmed, a team of 15 highly trained emergency responders were in place, the air conditioning was shut off and doors sealed, and staff monitored the situation through live video feeds. 

We must grapple with and adapt to the novel issues of protecting our valuables in the age of global warming, rising tides and increasing frequency of natural disasters. Although this article focuses on protecting fine art, much of this advice applies to other valuables, including musical instruments, libraries and archives. Contact Lutzker & Lutzker for assistance proactively protecting your collections and updating and maintaining adequate art insurance coverage.