Specialist Cover for Special Collections

If you own a valuable collection – of art, exceptional jewellery, or even fine wine – you’ll face a huge range of complex and unexpected risks and you’ll need cover to match. Standard insurance won’t protect you sufficiently… as you’d guess if you look closely at the standard policy wording and limits.

But what do you need to consider? At Bartlett Private Client, we have a lot of experience in arranging cover for unusual and valuable collections. Let’s take a look at the fundamentals.

Fine Art insurance

If your collection is exceptional, you should consider an ‘all risks’ policy tailored specifically for collections.

One specific risk is defective title. Also known as ‘legal title risk’, this is the risk that a legitimately purchased piece belongs to someone other than the seller. It’s not limited to fine art; it can crop up with rare instruments, vintage cards and jewellery or rare books and manuscripts. Some policies will cover some of the costs of defending legal title – but often substantially less than the total amount. And these often have exceptions – these might mean they’ll deny your claim if they determine that you could or should have found the problem when you bought the piece, or that you’re required to buy through specific trade associations, like the Society of London Art Dealers.

Specialist insurance for jewellery and art

If you own very high-value pieces of art or jewellery, your policy should include:

·??????Agreed value coverage: the insurer will pay out an agreed amount if certain specified items are lost or damaged, regardless of fluctuations in the market value.

·??????Blanket coverage with high single article limits: if you have a large collection with many lower-value pieces that add up to a significant amount, this type of insurance will cover them en masse. Typically, the best products will have single article limits up to ￡100,000 on Fine Art and ￡50,000 on Jewellery.

·??????Market appreciation coverage: if items are covered on a market value basis, this will pay up to 150% or 200% of the stated value, to cover your actual replacement cost (but you’ll need to make sure your inventories are up to date).

You should also look out for:

·??????Repairs after a loss: if the value of a piece is reduced after repair, the insurer will reimburse you for the depreciation

·??????Newly acquired items: a certain percentage of the value of your purchase will be covered for up to 90 days – plenty of time to catalogue and appraise it if needs separate cover and peace of mind for those spontaneous purchases.

·??????Items on loan: this will cover collections that have been loaned to you up to a certain amount for a limited time.

·??? Jewellery in bank: specialist polices will often cover jewellery removed from the bank for x number of days per policy period up to a defined limit.

High Net Worth policies also include world-wide cover, which would include all your collections, wherever they’re located; and future loss prevention, where if you do make a claim, your insurers will contribute towards measures to prevent a similar loss happening in the future.

Another feature important for fine art collections is:

·??????Death of artist: there is cover that can pay up to 200% of the insured value of any specified item if the artist dies (you’ll need proof of purchase or a recent valuation)

Specialist insurance policies offer vital financial protection if your pieces are stolen, damaged or lost and the claims experience is often quick and hassle free by design. Standard insurance policies and their claims experience simply can’t compare.

For more advice on your individual needs, don’t hesitate to get in touch: [email protected].