New airline regulations impose on the art world

In a recent article, the New York Times discusses a new rule on screening cargo that may have major implications for the shipment of works of art. The new rule, which will become effective on August 1, requires that all items shipped as cargo on commercial passenger airplanes will have to go through airline security screening. It is estimated that about 20 percent of art shipped around the world travels this way.

This new rule mandated by the Transportation Security Administration will cause frustrations for those responsible for shipping and safeguarding works of art because airline security will have the option to open and search through carefully secured pieces.

For about a year now, airlines have been required to screen half of their passenger-air cargo. Several categories of cargo, one of them being art, are almost always passed over because of the difficulty of searching and re-packaging such items.

In preparation for the new rule, many large art-shipping companies and museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum and the National Gallery have enrolled in a federal program that allows them to create secure screening facilities within their own buildings.

However, art-shipping experts say that the burden imposed by these new regulations will fall more heavily on galleries and private dealers, who are more likely to put together shows quickly or strike last-minute deals.

Many in the art world think it unlikely that galleries will set up their own screening facilities because of the space and resource requirements that accompany such a procedure. Instead, galleries will rely on art-shipping companies that have become certified screeners, which will add time and cost to shipping art. Right now, many works of art are packed at galleries or in collectors’ homes.

Another issue with the new airline procedure pointed out by John McCollum, the international shipping manager for Stebich Ridder International, an art-shipping company that has been certified by the federal government to screen cargo, is the frequent use of anonymous parties in art transactions. New rules by the federal government will require airlines to ensure that cargo comes only from known shippers. Under new regulations, hidden parties in art transactions will have a much harder time remaining anonymous.

McCollum and many others in the art world fear that these new regulations will cause many disturbances and inconveniences in the process of packaging and shipping pieces of art.