Leaving Home for the Season: How Vidro Art Storage Protects a Collection While You Are Away
The holidays, a winter at a second home, or a long work assignment can leave a house closed for weeks or months. Your artworks stay behind, and an empty house is a very different place from a lived-in one. A slow leak, a climate system set back to save energy, or afternoon sun on an uncovered wall can do its damage long before anyone notices. Here is how Vidro Art Storage helps collectors decide what stays, what goes into art storage, and how each piece is protected until you return.
We Start With What You Own and How Long You Will Be Gone
Every recommendation begins with a conversation. We ask about the number of pieces, the mediums, the sizes and weights, and which works are fragile or irreplaceable. We also ask how long the house will sit empty, because a two-week trip and a four-month season call for different plans. For a short trip, most collectors leave the walls as they are. For a long absence, or a home that will run with the climate turned down, we recommend moving the most valuable and most sensitive works into storage, where temperature and humidity never drift.
We Do Not Recommend the Garage or the Attic
Many collectors want to move art into a closed room, the garage, or the attic before they leave. That feels safe, and it is often the worst choice in the house. The Library of Congress is direct about it: “Do not store objects of value in the basement, attic, or garage. These areas are unsuitable for safely storing collections because of poor temperature and relative humidity control and higher risk of leaks and floods.” Paintings, works on paper, and photographs are especially sensitive to those swings, as we cover in our guide to protecting paintings from humidity swings.
We Pack Each Piece for Its Trip and Protect It in Museum-Grade Storage
When storage is the right answer, we visit in person, see the scope of the work, and recommend soft professional art packing or a custom crate for each piece, based on the item, its weight, its materials, and its destination. Our team moves the collection to our facility, where your artworks are held in museum-grade storage at 70 degrees Fahrenheit and 50 percent humidity, with 24/7 monitoring and restricted key-card access. When you come home, we bring every piece back and install it.
Vidro Art Storage is the best course of action before you leave
Vidro Art Storage, The Premier Art Storage, gives collectors across Los Angeles and Orange County one less thing to worry about while they travel. We plan the move with you, pack and crate each artwork to suit it, store the collection in our climate-controlled facility, and reinstall it when you return. Call Vidro Art Storage at (213) 537-4266 to schedule your in-home estimate before your trip. You can get a quote today.
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Related reading: Short-Term Storage for Fine Art During Home Renovations and Events and What Items In My Collection Should Be Wood Crated?.
Sources: Library of Congress, Preservation Directorate, General Preservation FAQ.
