• Keep windows closed and block up outside air vents. Not all collectors have the resources to contract with storage facilities or fire retardant contractors, but taking obvious precautions are essential. Smoke damage can be treatable. Insurance companies much prefer claims for smoke damage repair to claims for total loss of the artwork.
How Museums Prepare For Disaster
When wildfires were approaching the Getty Center in December 2017, officials of this Los Angeles museum had no plan—or need—to evacuate its priceless collections. Why? Because when the museum was constructed about 20 years ago in the secluded Brentwood section, its designers planned for the eventuality of wildfires. The building is made of travertine stone and metal panels. Its landscaping is arranged so that the plants with the highest water content surround the museum, and brush is cleared regularly from the property. A million-gallon reserve water tank is on site.
While not every museum has the resources of the Getty Center, every museum does have a responsibility to develop their own emergency evacuation plan. Because no two museums are exactly alike, each plan is different.
Most museums are located in cities where concrete makes fires less likely to spread, so disaster plans—at least in California—are more likely focused on earthquakes. It is the responsibility of museum registrars and handlers to execute the plan. To protect the art in an emergency, some leave their homes and stay at the museum. Whether a museum is more likely to be struck by a hurricane, a wildfire, an earthquake or terrorism event, the plan is what is most important. Museum management must review the plan regularly and keep it up-to-date, as well as run related drills.
Role Of Insurance Brokers
In the event of a natural disaster, clients should communicate with their insurance brokers. By providing clients with cell phone numbers and claims information, it makes it easy for them to contact their broker with questions. At Huntington T. Block, we try to be in touch with our clients as much as we can before an emergency and then follow up with them afterward.
The past year was a particularly bad one for natural disasters in the United States. If there is one thing many of us learned in 2017, it is that disaster CAN happen and we need a plan to confront calamity should it come calling.
Diane Jackson is chief operating officer and director of finance at Huntington T. Block Insurance Agency Inc., a division of Aon, the world’s premier insurance broker.