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| Feature |
Taming Unwieldy Collections
Julie Connelly
06/01/2005
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Although Layne would prefer
24-hour manned coverage within the home, many collectors settle for dogs. Fogel
uses a German shepherd in addition to alarms to protect his baseball
memorabilia. The dog, he says, “can be a pussycat most of the time, but knows
how to separate work from pleasure.” Unfortunately, guard dogs bring their own
risks. If a hound takes a hunk out of a trespasser, the interloper can sue the
owner, claiming he was on the property accidentally. “Dog bites are not a
penalty for art theft,” Layne says.
There are more insidious threats than the
two-footed kind. Light destroys prints, humidity wreaks havoc with books, heat
cracks furniture, stiletto heels punch holes in carpets. Unless your guests are
Japanese, they are likely to balk at removing their shoes before entering your
house, but you can mitigate other environmental predators with dehumidifiers or
humidifiers, air conditioning and drawn curtains.
Shane protects his
contemporary paintings and drawings with ultraviolet-light-blocking film on
every window. In coastal Oregon, where motorcycle collector Quinn lives,
humidity averages a corrosive 80 percent. Dehumidifiers are not up to the job,
so he battles the elements by keeping his shed heated to at least 65 degrees and
circulating the air once a day. The Bells’ handicrafts can hide strange bugs, so
they carefully examine each of their items once every year and kill off
intruders by consigning any infested goods to a 5-degree freezer in their
basement. “We have largely given up buying anything made of wool because there’s
usually something in it,” Susan Bell explains.
More pedestrian risks threaten
in-home collections: burst pipes and kitchen fires. Avoid storing anything
valuable in the attic or the basement, says Alissa Stallings, collector services
specialist at Chubb Insurance. “Those places are usually not tied into your
heating and air conditioning. The basement can flood and pipes can burst in the
attic.” Be sure to get your plumbing inspected once a year, and if you must put
items in the basement, raise them at least 18 inches off the ground, she
advises. Dorit Straus, worldwide specialty fine art manager for Chubb, says,
“You want a fire detector—which is almost more important to have than
security—smoke and heat sensors; low temperature sensors as well as heat.”
Insurance provides some balm for collector jitters. “It’s more than
protecting your investment; insurance is an emotional tranquilizer to protect
against the anxiety of having your things stolen,” collector Lerch explains.
However, collectors cannot count on a standard homeowner’s policy to cover their
pieces adequately; most will not pay to replace items of antiquity, which
usually means items more than 25 years old. Collectors can take out separate
riders on homeowner’s coverage for jewelry, fine art and other especially
valuable items, but in many cases a policy that specifically covers fine arts
and valuables serves them better. It should also insure the collectibles during
transit.
Prepare to pay a premium, both literally and figuratively, for such
coverage. “I pay six figures a year for it,” Fogel points out, “and I don’t
think any collector insures everything. If something is in a fireproof safe,
what’s the likelihood of anything happening to it?”
As a rough guide, expect
to pay 15 cents per $100 of coverage. While initial costs might be nominal, they
may skyrocket if the collectibles appreciate. Moreover, premiums are only part
of the insurance cost. Before underwriting a multimillion-dollar collection,
Chubb’s Straus or one of her colleagues visits the collector’s home or the site
of the collection. “We’re usually there to offer our advice,” she explains. “We
can survey the security and offer suggestions for improvements.” To which a
slightly disgruntled collector responds: “We had to pay for putting in all kinds
of security systems we wouldn’t have put in just by ourselves.”
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