Assessing the Transportation Environment

The transient period when an object travels between venues represents an extension of the museum environment. The object’s packing case provides a buffer against extreme environments; the permeability of the case’s materials and its method of construction can reduce the rate of air exchange into the case and provide physical protection, while use of material with low thermal conductivity can slow changes in interior temperature. The use of isolation materials can reduce external inputs of vibration and shock experienced by the object.

The increase in loans of objects between institutions has elevated these objects' exposure to the transportation environment. While its duration is typically brief, the transit environment has the potential to expose the object to shock, vibration, temperature, and relative humidity conditions that can exceed those designated by loan agreements and museum policy. These more extreme environmental conditions can induce physical responses such as material impact or expansion/contraction that can damage an object. Further, an object’s sensitivity to physical forces can vary depending on the temperature and moisture content of its materials.

Art packing and transportation were the focus of the seminal International Conference on the Packing and Transportation of Paintings held in London in 1991. This conference and the National Gallery of Art publication created for it, Art in Transit: Studies in the Transport of Paintings and the associated handbook, were instrumental in raising the level of art packing worldwide.

Today’s continued development of packing techniques and sensor technology present an opportune time for the conservation field to reassess the performance and sustainability of current packing case design.