Fine art storage with the move and the rehang handled by one team
Los Angeles has dedicated fine art storage facilities, built for museums, galleries and large collections, with viewing rooms, registrars and loan paperwork. If your collection needs those, a specialist facility is the right choice.
Most private collectors need something simpler and more joined up. A painting comes off the wall because the house is being sold, a room is being remodeled or the collection is being rotated. Someone has to pack it, move it, store it and hang it again, and when those are four different companies, every handoff is a chance for something to go wrong. Elite Moving & Storage keeps the whole cycle with one team and one condition record, from the wall a work leaves to the wall it returns to, whether in the same home or a new one.
What art needs in storage
Conservators and collection-care guides agree on the basics:
- Stable temperature and humidity. Widely cited guidance is about 68 to 72°F and 45 to 55 percent relative humidity. Stability matters most: canvas slackens and tightens as humidity moves, paint layers crack, wood panels warp and paper cockles.
- Low light. Light fades pigments, dyes and paper, and the damage adds up, so stored art is kept covered or in the dark.
- Upright and supported. Paintings stand on edge in padded racks or bins, never stacked flat and never face to face.
- Off the floor. Nothing rests where a leak or a spill could reach it, and works are kept away from exterior walls and pipes.
- Clean air. Dust, fumes and insects damage paper, textiles, wood and unvarnished surfaces.
The storage conditions and terms for your collection are put in writing before any work comes off the wall.
How to store paintings: crating or soft-pack
How a work is packed depends on what it is, how long it will be stored and how often it will move.
Soft-pack suits framed works stored for weeks or months rather than years, and works that come out often for rotation. The wrap is made for the rack rather than the road: a glassine layer, protected corners and a rigid outer face, labeled on the outside so a work can be found without unwrapping its neighbors. Nothing plastic sits against a painted surface for months, where it would hold moisture against the paint.
Crates suit works that are fragile, large or valuable, and anything going into long-term storage. A crate is built to the dimensions of the work, lined with foam and marked for orientation, so it is always carried and stored the right way up. Sculpture is braced inside its crate so it cannot shift. Storing large artwork takes its own plan: oversized canvases get crates or travel frames made for them, and the route out of the house is measured before anything is wrapped. Crating is the same work described on our fine art moving page, so a piece crated for a move can go straight into storage in the same crate.
Condition reports and a photo inventory at intake
Every work entering storage is examined and photographed before it is packed: the front, the back, the frame, labels and inscriptions, and any existing damage, from a scuffed frame corner to cracking in the paint. Those notes and photographs become the work’s record while it is in storage.
When the work comes out, it is checked against the same record, so you can see that it left exactly as it arrived. The record is useful beyond storage, too. Insurers, appraisers, auction houses and anyone buying the work will ask about condition, and a dated report with photographs answers the question.
When collectors use art storage
- Between homes. Art often comes off the walls first and goes back last, after painting, lighting and furniture placement are finished.
- During a remodel. Construction dust, paint fumes, vibration and trades working near the walls are hard on art. Taking works off site for the project is simpler and safer than protecting them in place.
- Rotation. When a collection is larger than the walls, works rotate in and out of storage with the seasons or the mood of the house.
- Second homes. Works move between residences, with storage in between.
- Estates. While a family settles an estate, waits for appraisals or decides what to keep or consign, the collection is held and recorded. See estate moving.
- Designers and galleries. Pieces bought for a project are held until the rooms are ready, then delivered and hung in one visit.
Delivery and reinstallation on request
When you want a work back, ask for it by its inventory entry. It is pulled from storage, checked against its condition report, packed for the trip and delivered. Art installation can follow on the same visit: the work is hung level and at the height you choose, with hardware suited to the wall and the weight of the piece, and the packing leaves with the crew.
Collectors who rotate works often swap pieces in a single visit: the incoming work is hung and the outgoing work is condition checked, packed and returned to storage on the same trip.
How to choose art storage in Los Angeles
Whoever you choose, these questions separate careful art storage from a room with a lock:
- What temperature and relative humidity is the space held at, and is it monitored?
- How are paintings stored? Upright in padded racks or crated, or stacked against each other?
- Will I get a condition report with photographs, at intake and again at release?
- Who packs, moves and installs the work, and is it one team or several?
- How do retrievals and rotations work, and how are they charged?
- What are the valuation terms while art is in storage and in transit, in writing?
If your collection needs private viewing rooms or institutional loan management, a dedicated fine art storage facility is worth it. If you want your art packed, stored and back on the wall without managing several vendors, storage that comes with the move and installation team is usually the better fit. Collectors with wine as well as art can keep both with us: see wine storage, and for the rest of the household, moving and storage.
