Logistics
I cannot take the “headache” out of logistics, but I can handle it for you.
JE, LLC delivers a calm and ordered approach to navigating the puzzle of fine art logistics. What JE, LLC does is more than just shipping! The puzzle pieces are arranged. Once the parameters and details of a project are known, JE, LLC will evaluate the necessary vendors, navigate the timeline, and identify the physical steps connecting each requirement in this complex orchestration. This mindset requires experience and the ability to find order amid ever-changing information in a high-pressure environment.
Prevalent throughout the art world – collectors, advisors, and gallerists alike – often a frenzy is brought about by fine art logistics. First the export license application, then unanticipated conservation, now a custom-fabricated acrylic vitrine, all within an impossible deadline. While art world logistics may cause even the shrewdest of minds to spin, mine falls into order.
Serving either to advise you and your team or to take on the project as a freelance contract, JE, LLC may be engaged to facilitate all elements of a shipment (the puzzle pieces!).
Components under the banner of Fine Art Logistics include yet are not limited to the following.
Table of Contents
Local (New York).
Local Resources: JE, LLC maintains an ongoing relationship with the art handling community, knowledge of its ever-evolving trucking companies, emerging collectives, and freelance art handling talent.
Specialized Resources: JE, LLC will advise you in determining which art handling company or warehouse is best suited to the requirements of your unique project or storage needs.
Onsite Courier: JE, LLC may be hired as onsite oversight during residential, outdoor, or institutional installation.
Domestic (USA).
JE, LLC will assist or facilitate all parts of domestic shipping via: shuttle, dedicated/exclusive truck, or air freight.
Estimates: Gathering, comparing and explaining multi-step, itemized estimates.
Site Visit: Scheduling and overseeing initial site visit to determine crate design and cost.
Condition Report: JE, LLC may draft onsite condition notes, or hire a professional third-party conservator to conduct a formal condition report, prior to and post shipment.
Crating and Packing: Oversight of crate design and fabrication timeline.
Rigging and Hoisting: JE, LLC has experience with various rigging techniques and vendors. JE, LLC will assist Clients throughout this often impressive and nerve-wracking process!
Courier: Via truck or air freight, JE, LLC may be engaged to serve as a “ride-along” courier for high-value or delicate artwork.
International.
International fine art shipping resembles a mirrored puzzle. The pieces and players on each side of the border advance in parallel.
JE, LLC is a master of communication and collaboration within this dual relationship.
US-based Clients & Collections: The shipment will require a US agent and a foreign agent, art handlers, and warehouses on both sides.
International Clients & Collections: JE, LLC offers a veteran understanding of the US import process, regulations (Lacey Act, US Fish and Wildlife Services, CITES, etc.), and states’ sales tax implications.
International Customs, Taxes & Freeports: JE, LLC will assist in navigating these complex factors.
- Export license application and timeline.
- Import/Export status, temporary (TA Temporary Admission) vs. permanent.
- Import/Export tax requirements (VAT, Plus tax, sales tax).
- Freeports and their stipulations (Geneva, Zurich, Delaware, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc.).
JE, LLC may be contracted to assist with facilitating export license application, assistance in determining what information and documents are required, then gathering and comprehensively supplying them to the freight forwarding and customs agent.
Throughout the process explaining the bureaucratic requirements, such as the owner’s tax ID number and various private documents.
This process often feels intrusive for collectors.
JE, LLC will clarify what is required and why!
Estimates: Gathering, comparing, and explaining multi-step, itemized estimates.
Supervision: Insuring supervision is organized at each point of transfer, throughout air freight shipments.
Site Visit: Scheduling and overseeing initial site visit to determine crate design and cost.
Condition Report: JE, LLC may draft on-site condition notes, or hire a professional third-party conservator to conduct a formal condition report, prior to and post-shipment.
Crating & Packing: Oversight of crate design and fabrication timeline.
Courier: Via truck or air freight, JE, LLC may be engaged to serve as a “ride-along” courier for high-value or delicate artwork.
International Resources: International network of vendors and colleagues, JE, LLC enjoys nurturing these relationships. For clients with a Subscription Membership, a directory of preferred international agents and vendors will be available as a searchable database (coming soon!).
Innovative Problem-Solving & Solutions: If I don’t have the answer, I will connect you with the appropriate contact who will. A core principle of JE, LLC is collaboration and connection. There will be no ego or prima donna here. Let’s use our international community and relationships to move your project forward!
Private Collection.
Estates & Foundations.
Working Artists.
Blue Chip & High-Value: From evening sale to your seasonal residence, JE, LLC is well positioned to facilitate secure, supervised, climate-controlled, exclusive, movement, and installation of high-value artwork.
Discretion & Confidentiality: JE, LLC respects the privacy of the client and the collection. Discretion and confidentiality are the backbone of the fine art industry.
Local, Domestic & International Shipping: JE, LLC will assist you through any type of shipment or facilitate it on your behalf.
Insurance: JE, LLC will guide the client through the nuanced discussion of fine art Insurance during transport, per-conveyance limitations, and insurer’s terms and provisions.
Courier: Via truck or air freight, JE, LLC may be engaged to serve as a “ride-along” courier for high-value or delicate artwork.
Large Scale Sculpture: JE, LLC offers experience with monumental, public, and outdoor sculpture rigging, installation, deinstallation, and movement. JE, LLC may be hired to both schedule the project, as well as provide on-site supervision.
Art Fairs.
Having served as a Registrar for eighteen years in commercial art galleries, I have experienced Art Fair Project Management,
from juggling incoming consignments, and shipping from various international cities to on-booth build-up, installation, logistical support, deinstallation, and distributions.
JE, LLC may be engaged to help the inundated Registrarial Department or the ambitious Gallerist present a stunning booth at their next fair.
Local, Domestic, and International Shipping: There is an art to consolidated shipping, to receiving multiple shipments with varied origins and customs statuses. JE, LLC excels at weaving these threads into a cohesive Freight-IN, with safe and timely delivery to the booth
On-Booth Build-up: Idiosyncratic questions arise once in the booth… “When do they paint the baseboards?” “The closet door fell off the hinges.” “How do I order a refrigerator last minute?” “When is our lighting appointment (in three languages)?” “When do they remove the empty crates?” “When do they return the empty crates?” “Where can I buy a Swiss surge protector, five-hour energy, espresso cups, decongestants, and magic erasers on a Sunday?” …JE, LLC can help!
Conservation: JE, LLC enjoys close relationships with preferred conservators, who set up temporary studios on-site, as well as offer on-booth condition reporting services.
Viewing Room: JE, LLC may be engaged to assist with viewing room coordination, with a unique understanding of the time-sensitive nature of scheduling private viewing appointments and the necessity for prompt installation with dynamic lighting design.
Exhibitions.
The fine art logistical puzzle becomes significantly more complex with an exhibition joining together work from various lenders and consignors, and their respective countries.
Exhibition design, construction, and promotion require additional moving parts, schedule demands, and vendors – so much more than just shipping!
JE, LLC may be hired to assist with Exhibition Project Management.
Local, Domestic & International Shipping: Consolidated and individual shipments.
Photography: Organizing photography on-site and in advance of shipping, for the purposes of exhibition catalogue design and layout.
Site Visit: Scheduling and overseeing initial site visit to determine crate design and cost.
Condition Report: JE, LLC may draft on-site condition notes, or hire a professional third-party conservator to conduct a formal condition report, prior to and post-shipment.
Crating & Packing: Oversight of crate design and fabrication timeline.
Courier: Organizing all travel requirements for lender-requested couriers or preferred conservators.
Courier: JE, LLC may serve as a courier on behalf of Gallery, Foundation, or Private Lender.
Art Handling: Source, hire, and schedule art handlers for receiving freight-in, exhibition installation, deinstallation, packing, freight-out, and empty crates storage for the duration of the exhibition.
Conservation: Post shipment condition report, treatment proposal, continued communication throughout treatment timeline, post-treatment condition report.
Framing: JE, LLC maintains an extensive directory of preferred framers, organized by city and specialty.
Antique Frame Restoration: One of those unforeseen steps in the process!
Pedestals: Mount, acrylic vitrine, pedestal, and plinth design and fabrication, including round pedestals and plinths!
Acrylic Specialist: Acrylic shaping, for unique vitrine, case, or mount designs.
Temporary Walls: Sourcing contractors for temporary wall construction and demolition, including painting, and specialty wall treatment.
Lighting Specialist: Sourcing, contracting, and directing an exhibition lighting specialist.
Rigging & Hoisting: JE, LLC has much experience hosting oversized crates into gallery and residential spaces, via an upper story window, as well as installing monumental, public, and outdoor sculptures. An ever-expanding list of vendors who specialize in rigging and hoisting are included in JE, LLC’s director of preferred vendors.
Custom Covers for Outdoor Sculpture: Design and fabrication of custom covers to protect outdoor sculpture, year-long.
Installation photography: Post installation, photographic documentation of the exhibition for gallery/museum promotion and website content.
Communication!
Ensuring communication between all the moving parts and parties involved in your shipment, including the unforeseen or unexpected!
Connecting the moving pieces and players:
Customs broker, domestic and international shipping agents, freight forwarder, technicians at origin warehouse,
truck driver, dock master, installation techs, framer, conservator, mount fabricator, and more!
