Storage of paintings

Carol Clausen <carol_clausen<-a t->occshost< . >nlm< . >nih< . >gov> writes

>We have a small (29) collection of framed oil paintings in need of a
>simple, inexpensive storage arrangement. The solution I have come up
>with is to have heavy cardboard boxes made to hold 5 or 6 paintings
>each, with heavy corrugated cardboard sheets separating the
>paintings from each other. Some of the paintings will protrude as
>much as 15" above the top of the boxes, to make it easier to remove
>them. The boxes will not have covers, but we may cover them loosely
>with plastic sheeting to protect from possible water leaks.  We may
>mount each box on a small wheeled truck.

Since this isn't my specialism I wasn't going to say anything,
thinking that others would jump in.  But as they haven't, I will
chip in:

It is not a good idea to store paintings flat.  They should be
stored on edge, having protected the corners of the frames with
bubble-wrap.  They may be wrapped in polythene sheet, but this would
depend on whether there was any risk of condensation.  A corrugated
plastic box, as suggested by Jerry Shiner, is quite a good idea, but
may not be strong enough.

Alternatively, depending on the size of the paintings and where they
are going to be stored, you could screw each one to a sheet of
plywood and build up plywood edges so that each one is in a lidless
box.  The boxes can be covered with polythene sheet as a protection
against dust and then stacked on edge.

Barry Knight
English Heritage
London

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:2
                   Distributed: Friday, June 20, 1997
                        Message Id: cdl-11-2-005
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