Shipping inflatable objects

I am posting the following query on behalf of a colleague who is not
on the Cons DistList.  I'm hoping some of you out there have dealt
with this sort of issue before.

    We have a number of inflatable toys from the 70s and 80s that
    someone wants to borrow from us.  The toys came from Warhol's
    Time Capsules and are currently inflated.  As a general rule, we
    do not alter items we find in the Time Capsules, opting to leave
    them exactly as Warhol left them.  In theory, these should be
    really easy to ship--they aren't fragile and they act as their
    own padding.  Except we have to ship them internationally on a
    cargo flight.  I've seen what happens to bags of chips and
    plastic bottles at altitude so I'm pretty worried about these
    toys.

    The obvious answer is to deflate them, but our curator does not
    want to do that.  They've also been inflated for at least 30
    years, so I'm not sure how deflating and re-inflating might
    affect them.  Unfortunately I don't have specific info about
    what type of plastic they are made of, but I'm guessing some
    type of PVC (although if any of you have 70s toys in your
    collection and can tell me more about the types of materials
    you'd expect this to be, that would be great).  The plastic is
    in good condition - no brittleness or stickiness, or any other
    noticeable signs of deterioration.

    I feel like the answer is that we have either deflate these, or
    pull them from the loan.  But I could use some help supporting
    this with an argument that's better than my crumpled water
    bottle from my last trip.  Does anyone have experience with
    these types of objects, or have a resource or a contact who
    specializes in plastics?

    Amber E. Morgan
    Director of Collections and Registration
    The Warhol
    117 Sandusky Street
    Pittsburgh, PA 15212
    412-237-8306
    Fax: 412-237-8340

Sue Maltby, Conservator
Maltby and Associates Inc.
Adjunct Faculty
Museum Studies Programme/Faculty of Information
University of Toronto
174 Spadina Ave., # 602
Toronto, Ontario M5T 2C2
Canada
416-921-2877


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 30:3
                   Distributed: Friday, June 3, 2016
                        Message Id: cdl-30-3-013
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