Why You Should Never Use Your Local Self Storage for Fine Art
The unit down the street is cheap, close, and convenient. For boxes of holiday decorations, that is fine. For anything you actually care about keeping, and fine art above all, it is one of the most expensive decisions you can make.
The climate is whatever the weather is
A standard self storage unit is a metal box that follows the outside temperature and humidity all day, every day. Fine art hates exactly that. Panels crack, canvases go slack and taut, frame joints loosen, varnish blooms, and works on paper develop the brown spotting called foxing. The damage is slow, invisible for months, and usually permanent by the time you notice. A purpose-built art facility holds the museum standard, 70 degrees Fahrenheit and 50 percent relative humidity, steady around the clock.
Nobody handles your pieces but you
At a self storage unit, you move everything yourself, on a borrowed dolly, through a roll up door, in a hallway that was never designed for a five foot canvas. Conservators agree that most damage to artwork happens during handling and moving, not while a piece sits still. Professional art storage means trained handlers move each piece once, carefully, and document its condition.
Security is a padlock, and break ins are common
Most self storage security ends at a gate code and a lock you supplied yourself, and thieves know it. A pair of bolt cutters opens a standard padlock in seconds. A more organized version is a thief who rents a unit, then cuts through the thin interior walls to empty every unit down the row. Break ins and vandalism at self storage are common enough to be a well documented problem, and California ranks among the states with the highest self storage theft. Many facilities sit in low traffic industrial areas with round the clock access, which is convenient for you and just as convenient for someone casing the place after dark. A dedicated art facility is a different world: 24 hour monitoring, restricted and logged access, and no shared row of thin walled units for anyone to cut through.
What to use instead
Fine art belongs in storage built for it, handled by people who do only this. Vidro Art Storage is a museum grade, climate controlled facility in Los Angeles serving collectors, galleries, designers, and institutions across Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and the surrounding areas.
The difference is that everything happens under one roof and one team. White glove handlers pick your pieces up at your door and move them in climate controlled transport. Fragile and high value works are packed in custom crates with archival materials before they travel. At intake, each piece is cataloged with photographs and condition notes, so you always know what you have and the state it is in. Inside, the environment holds the museum standard of 70 degrees Fahrenheit and 50 percent relative humidity around the clock, with custom racking for oversized works, a clean and dust free space, 24 hour security monitoring, and restricted access limited to trained art handlers and staff. When a piece needs to come back, move to a show, or go to a new home or a buyer, the same team delivers and installs it. The Premier Art Storage.
If a piece matters enough to keep, it matters enough to store correctly. You can get a quote today.
Related reading: How Light Damages Fine Art and How to Protect Your Paintings From Los Angeles Humidity Swings.
Sources: American Institute for Conservation, Getty Conservation Institute, American Alliance of Museums.