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Visual Media Deterioration

There are many mediums on which visual media can be stored. Today I would like to touch on the problem with the deterioration of VHS and Film media.

 Lets start with VHS and other cartridge tapes, as these are the ones we are most familiar with.  Videotapes are made of a magnetic imaging material and deteriorate faster than any other storage medium. The tape is composed of a binder and a base. Any number of factors causes deterioration by acting on one or more of these components.

 Sunlight will breaks down the binder that holds the magnetic material to the base.

Heat causes expansion and contraction of the tape base, which leads to warping and possible shedding of the magnetic material.

Dust, dirt, smoke and oil could cause abrasions that wear the magnetic material from the base. Magnetic fields may cause partial erasure and/or tape noise as they act on the tape’s complex magnetic patterns.

Exposure to moisture and high humidity allows fungus and mold to grow preventing the head from reading the magnetic material. Moisture also breaks down the molecules in the base and magnetic material over time. This decomposition causes a chain reaction that will eventually eat away the binder and cause the tape to stick, also known as Sticky Tape Syndrome.

Playing the tape or leaving the VCR on pause stretches the tape and wears off the magnetic data.

 Depending on the conditions of storage, usage and the equipment used to play the video, it will have a life of between 3 to 20 years.

Cinefilm, more commonly identified by its size (8mm, 16mm, 35mm, 70mm and so on) is made of chemical dyes on a nitrate, acetate or polymer base coated in gelatin.  As with VHS and cartridge tapes, cinefilm too is affected by a number of factors.

 Sunlight breaks down the chemical dyes.

Exposure to moisture and high humidity allows fungus and mold to grow, as it does with VHS tapes, covering and embedding itself into the image on the film.  Humidity over time creates an environment in which the film acetate chemically decomposes or literally “eats itself”, creating a vinegar smell. (Early nitrate films will do this naturally) This particular event has been popularly termed Vinegar Syndrome. Much research has been done on vinegar syndrome and I am not going to touch on it here. Numerous papers and web sites are dedicated to this topic, and I would have anything new to add.

In Old and brittle film, even playing the film starts to cause flecks to come off and the sprocket holes break as the stress of a projector and the projector’s hot lamp work to tear off small flecks of film.

Cleaning the film can cause deterioration.  There are four generally accepted ways of cleaning film and each of these has it’s own problems. In Solvent-based cleaners, rewashing softens the emulsion. Pressure Transfer Rollers can cause physical damage to the film itself. Distilled water cleaner can start the chain reaction known as Vinegar Syndrome and airbrush cleaning is ineffective when it comes to cleaning mold and fungus.

 Although cinefilm is a more stabile media, storage, usage and the equipment used to play the video will limit the life of cinefilm from decades to centuries.

 Symptoms to watch for are:

• Fuzzy or snowy images
• Blank spots
• Streaking, sparkling, static or thin lines across the screen
• Faded or uneven colour
• Distorted noise and/or colour
• Vinegar odor
• Shedding and dropouts
• Sticky tape and does not move evenly through player

Is It Fine Art, A Collectible Or An Antique?

Although any item could be placed into one or more of the following groups, there are some general guidelines for placing an item into a category…

 

 Fine Art – “a visual art considered to have been created primarily for aesthetic purposes

                         and judged for its beauty and meaningfulness, specifically, painting, sculpture,

                        drawing, watercolor, graphics, and architecture.” The word “fine” does not so

                        much denote the quality of the artwork in question, but the purity of the

                        discipline.[1]

 Collectible – A collectible is typically a manufactured item designed for people to collect.

                               In addition, a collectible can be an item made without the intention of

                              special interest but due to rarity or uniqueness, production fault, human

                              error, nostaliga, or other events, becomes sought after due to its rarity in

                              these circumstances.  A collectible does not necessarily have to be valuable

                              or antique.

 Antique – The word antique comes from the Latin word antiquus, meaning old.

                         Although there are many opinions as to how old an item must be to be

                         considered on antique, there have been a couple formal attempts in defining

                         the term. One such attempt was the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930 which

                         defined an antique as “works of art, collections in illustration of the progress,

                         of the arts, works in bronze, marble, terra cotta, parian, pottery or porcelain

                         artistic antiquities and objects of ornamental character or educational value

                        which shall have been produced prior to the year 1830.” Another attempt is

                        made by U.S.Customs and Border Protection defining an antique as “an article

                        over 100 years of age at the time of importation.” These definitions are arguably

                       only for taxation purposes. In a commercial situation I would suggest that an

                       antique is “a decorative object, piece of furniture, or other work of art created

                       in an earlier period” . There are many things that are old, but simply being old

                       does not imply that the item is an antique or even valuable. 

 

---

[1] Dictionary.com – Unabridged

Substrate Induced Discoloration

 Substrate Induced Discoloration or (SID)

  
Acrylic mediums (especially when thickly applied) have the ability to draw out impurities from the support (surface) they are painted on. Gesso priming will not prevent this from occurring. The impurities in the support cause clear gel mediums to take on a yellow to deep brown cast. Pre-washing your canvas will remove impurities and prevent SID.

 

  

Art Damage & Diminished Value

An Observation on Diminished Value

Conservators and restoration specialists Code of Ethics prohibits them from entering into the realm of appraisals as a clear conflict of interest. However, the reality is that the “success” of a conservation treatment of a damaged work of art does have a very real impact on the value of the piece after treatment.

 Just as an art appraiser working within the insurance industry is NOT a representative of the insurance industry, neither is the conservator. Many conservators have apprehensions about the insurance industry and have legitimate issues and concerns regarding their direct or indirect involvement in fine art insurance claims or their own insurance coverage.

 The question “What is Art?” lingers within the insurance industry. A vast majority of the people working within the domestic insurance market acknowledges their limited knowledge and appreciation of art. Art appears intimidating and foreign to insurance agents, brokers, underwriters, and claims adjusters. However, there do exist a minority of people within the insurance industry who are atypical and specialize in fine art insurance.

 The U.S. insurance industry has a diminishing and narrow understanding of the art object as well as the role of the fine art conservator. When an object of art is damaged, the insurance company typically assigns the claim to an adjuster. The adjuster assigned to the claim can either be a company adjuster or an “independent adjuster”, by definition, not on the payroll of any specific insurance company.

 Consultants are utilized when a claim requires a specific expertise. A hail damaged roof, for example, would require the technical evaluation of a structural engineer to properly assess the damages. I play a similar role within the art community. Within the appraisal industry, I am one of the only fine art experts with over 18 years as a Property &Casualty adjuster. My role as an adjuster was to investigate the insurance claim by meeting with all interested parties and making a physical inspection of the work or works of art to assess damages. Adjusters are guided by the insurance policy, which can have slight variations from company to company. Many claims for fine art involve damage in transit. An underwriter’s greatest exposure is not always fire or theft but sub-standard packing and handling.

 When a work of art is damaged, you should secure the services of a trained conservator or restoration specialist as well as an accredited or certified art & antiques appraiser to assist with the insurance claim.  Conservators or restoration specialists can provide you with opinions regarding restoration, while the appraiser can provide value opinions both before and after restoration.  Valuation subsequent to restoration is often referred to as “Diminished Value”, although not all restoration will diminish the value of a work of art. Diminished Value calculations can be very difficult for conservators, insurance adjusters and collectors to fully comprehend; yet it is a constantly recurring problem within the insurance industry. This subjective process is about the position of the artwork within the art market and not about the success or failure of the conservation. The quality of the conservation is an important factor in determining diminished value although the monetary compensation for damage is never a reflection upon the quality of the conservation. Conservation can be 100% successful, yet the value of the artwork can be negatively affected. Conversely, even a partial restoration of certain works would affect their value to the positive. In addition, the auction market, history of private sales and the state of the art market at the time of loss, should also be considered in determining loss of value. Many appraisers utilize a scenario, which incorporates a mathematical formula of subjective values pre and post damage where the difference between the two numbers equals the loss of value.

 Loss of value compensation is a negotiated compromise that should be discussed by the adjuster and the owner of the artwork. A conservator should never be placed in a position to render a public opinion regarding loss of value, as this would be in violation of their “code of ethics”. Many untrained adjusters pressure the conservator for a success percentage attributed to the anticipated condition of the artwork after treatment. A conservator may innocently write within a Treatment Proposal or Condition Report stating that “conservation may be 90% successful”, thinking they are circumventing the question of loss of value. The adjuster will simply interpret this as meaning the value, post restoration, is 90% of the value prior to restoration. One way for the conservator to avoid such a misrepresentation is to clearly state that the success rate of the conservation is by no means a representation of a perceived loss of value.

 Please contact me with any questions that you may have.

Cris Drugan, ISA-AM, CIPM

 cris@emeraldartservices.com

www.emeraldartservices.com

www.linkedin.com/in/cdrugan

Int’l Mezzotint Society page on Facebook

Trout, mezzotint by: David Crown

The International Mezzotint Society

 

The International Mezzotint Society now has a presence on Facebook. 

[http://www.math.ufl.edu/~glover/mezzotint.html]

 

Check it out at…

http://www.facebook.com/pages/International-Mezzotint-Society/292301830839?ref=ts

 

 

New Rule on Cargo Is Shaking Art World

Let me first post the credits… New York Times, Randy Kennedy, Feb. 12th 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/arts/design/13transport.html?sudsredirect=true

Here’s the edited version:

…the stuff of real nightmares: the possibility that airline employees could open carefully crated works of art to search them the way checked baggage is sometimes searched now, poking around Picasso’s instead of sweaters and socks.  Art-shipping experts say that the burden of the new regulations will fall more heavily on galleries and private dealers than on museums, which typically plan exhibitions years in advance and can arrange for shipping that avoids passenger planes.  “And so you have a Ming vase in special foam, and an airline subcontractor has to take that out and then repack it because he got a false positive on an explosive swab test,” said Mary C. Pontillo, an assistant vice president of the DeWitt Stern Group.  “It’s a big understatement that that’s something you don’t want to happen.”  But the new rules could lead to delayed shipments. And even the faint possibility of an airline inspector with a screwdriver uncrating a Calder sculpture or an early Renaissance tempera painting could be enough to cause collectors to think twice.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Although the Transportation Security Administration’s 49 CFR, subchapter 3, Civil Aviation Security, part 1549 (Certified Cargo Screening Program) [http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=669109c0a3a410a9af9e196c48076dcf&rgn=div5&view=text&node=49:9.1.3.5.15&idno=49] allows for the availability to apply for setting up a secure screening area, only the largest institutions will be able to consider the expense.

Can you imagine TSA inspectors inexperienced in art handling opening up valuable art and rummaging through it!  Will it be re-packed correctly for the rest of the journey?  The probability of inspections of crated artwork is low if not only because of the volume of cargo that is shipped on a daily basis. But IT CAN happen. 

Will insurance policies cover damage by a government agency? Is a TSA search considered a governmental action, thus excluded by many insurance policies?  Not to mention the inability to subrogate for damage caused by a governmental agency, even if covered by your policy. 

This regulation has far reaching impact on Collectors, Museums, Galleries and Insurers.  We will have to see what happens after this goes into effect after August 1st. I’ll watch for instances of damage, if reported, and report the results here on my blog.

Linkedin Group:Inland Marine Adjusters, Agents & Underwriters

My www.Linkedin.com group is gaining steam ► We now have 47 members!

Our members are from all over the world including the Netherlands, Viet Nam, Singapore and India.

Professions include Insurance Agents, Private Investigators, several Recruiters to provide us with job leads, Product Managers, Commercial Adjusters, Property and IM Underwriters, Attorneys, Public Adjusters, Insurance Co. Presidents/VP’s/Directors, Art Appraisers, Contractors and Consultants.

■ Lets keep growing thru 2010! ■

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