Art fair
Event where galleries set up a booth for a week: theft at the fair, damage during installation and sales closed on site make a short, dense exposure.
A Paris gallery rents a 40 square meter booth for a five-day fair in Basel and hangs 9 million euros of pieces on it. Its usual art dealer policy covers the premises, not necessarily the exhibition hall: it needs a fair extension, which follows the works from warehouse to booth and covers installation, opening days, dismantling and return. Typical claims are snatch thefts during the evening opening, knocks from visitors, a frame dropped during hanging. The organizer provides general security but disclaims any liability for the booths, sending each gallery back to its own insurance. That leaves the moment of sale: a work sold on Tuesday and collected on Friday changes owner mid-fair. The policy has to say who bears the risk between signature and removal, usually settled by the risk-transfer clause in the bill of sale.
Textbook case: a gallery shows 14 works worth 9 million euros on a fair booth. On Thursday night, a 120,000 euro bronze sculpture vanishes from the stand after the evening opening. The insurer asks for proof of the agreed guarding; the gallery produces the fair's patrol log and the claim is settled after deductible.
art fair cover, booth insurance, gallery stand at fair, exhibition fair for art
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