recent one that got me laughing; young emerging artist doing a solo show at some random gallery. Gallery got like 400 followers on instagram, a gmail account for contact, I inquired and they start playing the blue chip card asking me what I do for a living, what is in my collection and how the show is already sold out but they might allocate pieces soon...

lol gtfoh, they've spent too much time listening to artorious

I feel your pain, I have had some truly badly packaged art sent to me by artists; creases, fingerprints, marks from fingernails, no protection etc. I have had bad packaging and damaged goods from galleries too, but on balance, artists (some) are worse.

The packaging and shipping is never going to be 100% safe (unless you hand deliver it) as accidents happen, or somebody could decide to drive over your carefully packaged art in a fork lift truck.

It bugs me when thin tubes are used for rolled art, anything less than 3mm thick is not suitable (there are companies that will make 4mm and 5mm thick tubes if you order in quantity).

If I have a higher value item being shipped in a tube I will often split another tube down its length and slide it over (bit of a faff) to create a 6mm thick tube that I can stand on.




Expensive - but worth it - Not had one of these damaged (yet)

It happened to me, 3 times this year ( no protection, simple envelopes and obviously mini prints, books flyers, stamps (Invader - the package lol ! And I paid 12 euros for that ), they all don’t care.
It never happened before !

Bubble wrap can (and very often does) leave small circular marks on a painting.

Just out of curiosity/interest what is the best material to wrap as the first layer around a painting? acrylic or oil.

Bubble wrap has a flat side and a bubbly side - it’s generally okay to use with the flat side against the art, but obviously safer to put a layer of something in between. It’s amazing how many people don’t realise that the two sides aren’t the same.

Like chr1s said, Dartek is great to use when first wrapping a flat work. However, if a painting has any texture at all, a shadow box, collar, or t-frame should be used so as nothing touches the painting's surface. I also agree about not putting bubble wrap directly on a painting. 

I’ve started requesting that tubes are put inside a box as well after I got this one delivered on an overnight international courier last month (the damage ripped through the middle of the print inside). Got a replacement but simple measures can reduce valuable items getting damaged.

About a year ago, I bought a watercolor on paper done by a well known artist, from a well known European gallery. The geniuses at the gallery sent it in an envelope, with no cardboard or backing of any sort to support it; a simple, flimsy, yellow envelope. Naturally it arrived completely destroyed.

I reached out to the gallery, and they said they’d fix the issue. Flash forward six months, and no resolve, simply procrastination, so I took it upon myself to reach out directly to the artist via Instagram, and explained the situation. The artist wasn’t pleased, and within two weeks sent me a canvas to replace the damaged watercolor paper piece.

The gallery had the audacity to reach out to me and say in the future they’d appreciate it if I didn’t reach out to artists to discuss transactions. I promptly replied that there was no future in store for the two of us.

That type of stupidity by art “pros” not only grinds my gears, but also chaps my hide, burns my biscuits, steams my clams, gets my goat and ruffles my feathers.

I don’t understand why it is so difficult to do? I ordered an antenna from the US, only about $100, and it came bubble wrapped in a tube, inside bubble wrap in a box. Honestly floored me how well it was wrapped. And that’s something you’d need to give a real whack to damage. If they can do it, it’s just laziness for galleries not to do the same.