I use Hiscox. They are very clued up regarding insurance for art.

Thanks folks, looks like I'll be giving Hiscox a call.....

Direct Line will require evaluations. 

I haven't provided any and they have covered all my pieces

Whether or not you have to depends on the total amount the policy covers and the price of any particular individual item. I made the assumption the OP was referring to a Banksy, which should break that threshold.

All I can say is that my experience was different than yours!

Maybe check the review mentioned by another member, my friend. My only experience was arranging a policy. No experience of making a claim to date (touch wood).

Brownhill Insurance are professional and straightforward.

Be warned.... A refusal to quote for a renewal by your existing insurer has to be declared when renewing elsewhere otherwise they'll stitch you up in the event of a claim for non disclosure.

Not a significant problem if the art is covered elsewhere, but you won't get prices from comparison sites, they treat you with suspicion.

Hiscox are good if you’re not insuring pieces over £50k, otherwise use Ultimart. I have policies with both and they’re great. I’ve claimed through Hiscox before and it was super easy and they didn’t give me any hassle.

For exactly that reason, you only need to provide valuations with ultimart for pieces to support a claim and not when you take out the policy. It’s an added expense and layer of hassle having to provide them up front especially if the values move around. 

In the US, if you want just a stand alone art policy (not have to move all your other lines of insurance to them like Chubb requires), perhaps Burns & Wilcox which will then get Lloyds to underwrite. They require appraisals for any single piece above $100K and also alarm with monitor for burglary and fire.

I had the same, moved the art under a separate policy but the main policy underwriters will not quote, because the art value deems it higher risk than they're happy to cover.

I have used Brownhills as my broker for the last few years and through them insure with AXA.
As someone has previously mentioned they can also sort out your contents insurance as well.

Link here link

The AXA policy is quite flexible.
Your collection does not have to be exclusively art, it can be a combination of things so if you also collect antiques they can also be covered.
You will need to keep an up-to-date inventory of your collection which most of you probably already do.
There are a couple of exceptions the most notable of which is watches.
You can insure in increments of 50 K
They don’t require valuations as long as any one piece of your collection does not exceed a third of the value of the total insured.

For example just to be clear:
If you insure for a total of £150K you are covered by default for any single work up to £50K
If you insure for a total of £300K you are covered by default for any single work up to £100K
If you insure for a total of £600K you are covered by default for any single work up to £200K

As for security they don’t require a monitored alarm if you are insuring up to a total value of 500K
Over that value they do insist on a you having a monitored alarm.


I also don't work for Brownhills or have any connection with them,

Brownhills provide coverage in the USA?