Dear list members,
I would be very grateful for any advice and recommendations regarding insurance for archives against theft and damage.
As a design and architecture studio we have general contents insurance that includes a certain level of cover for our archive but I am concerned that the amount isn't high enough, while also being unsure how to assign values to much of our material, which includes a whole range of objects from presentation models through to sketches, mock-ups, sketch models and materials tests. In some cases it's possible for me to assign a very black and white value in terms of cost of staff time and materials but many of our objects don't translate in this way and are irreplaceable.
We are wondering whether it might be worth consulting with an external expert to help us make an assessment. Someone from our accounts department has said that I would need to prove values to our insurers in terms of cost of materials or potential income if we were to auction the item, but it would be virtually impossible for me to go through this process for all of the 20,000+ objects in our archive. I'm also concerned that this approach doesn't seem to take into account the emotional/historical/cultural value of our archive. But perhaps insurance doesn't operate on these terms?!
Please contact me off-list with suggestions of valuation specialists and insurers working in the creative sector and any thoughts/advise on assigning values to art/design archives.
Many thanks,
Alice O'Hanlon
Archivist, Heatherwick Studio
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