Crown Fine Arts UK (Museums and Exhibitions Division), formerly known as Oxford Exhibition Services (OES) has established a good relationship with The Society of Antiquaries since first working with them in 2008. The company won the contract to provide logistics for the UK tour of objects from the Society’s extraordinary collections after an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts called Making History. Antiquaries in Britain 1707-2007.
Michael Festenstein from Crown Fine Arts said: “We worked with the Society of Antiquaries to manage the UK tour of their collection.
This entailed packing the items from the Society’s premises and transporting them to four museum venues across the UK for the tour. We also managed the installation of objects from the Society of Antiquaries at these destinations.”
Society of Antiquaries' Collections Manager Julia Dudkiewicz said: “After working with Oxford Exhibition Services in 2008 for the UK tour of the exhibition, we were so impressed with their professionalism that we chose them to manage the packing and transportation of our collection to the US.
Crown Fine Arts UK - Museums and Exhibitions Division was actively involved in the entire process from preparing a project plan, performing site surveys and providing guidance about the security and transport of the Society of Antiquaries’ valuable and historically significant collection. The company manufactured transport frames, crates and special dollies for the items and obtained CITES and export licenses, as well as transporting the collection to the US in two shipments.
Heather Rowland, Head of Library and Collections Society of Antiquaries, said: “This exhibition was a rare opportunity to introduce some of our most precious artefacts, including several 15th and 16th century panel paintings and early illuminated manuscripts to an American audience for the very first time.
“We used Crown Fine Arts UK (Museums and Exhibitions Division), formerly known as Oxford Exhibition Services (OES), on a major tour in England and they were our preferred agent for the US tour because of the knowledge and understanding they had developed of our varied collections.
“Naturally we were nervous about transporting some of the fragile items, such as the Bronze Age shield and our panel paintings which are vulnerable to vibration and environmental changes. But the packing and transportation was project managed and executed very well. Having a professional, knowledgeable dedicated team to work with was essential,” said Heather.
“Crown Fine Arts UK (Museums and Exhibitions Division) also project managed and handled the logistics ready for the transit to US. They handled the packing lists and managed the transit in two shipments to the cargo area of the airport. They managed the balance of the cargo for transit and handled the licencing for export, which is very time consuming and not something that we had the capacity to undertake in house.
“There were many logistical elements that the team were really helpful with, for example, some of our items required conservation treatment prior to transport. The team liaised with the conservators working off site to agree the collection and return the items in preparation for packing,” continued Heather.
“The company also undertook the travel arrangements for the couriers from the Society of Antiquaries who were travelling with the items, and crucially for us, arranged it so that we could be present at the airport to watch the building of the cargo pallets. This was really important to us.
“Everyone we dealt with was helpful and professional. We were also impressed with the clean, high-tech vehicles which included state of the art cameras, environmental control and tracking. Overall we were very impressed by solutions that were devised to tackle the international loan, as well as the company’s ability to manage the logistics of this complex project,” concluded Heather Rowland.
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